Grace & Silver
by Remenants
Summary: Nerima in ruins, now a place of sorrow and death. Nabiki's only way of finding hope and answers is to travel halfway around the world to a place born of madness. To the town of Silent Hill. DARK R&N? R&A?
1. Arrival

Poor Reception

by Remenants

A Ranma / Silent Hill Crossover.

Disclaimer: Ranma and the Wrecking Co. belong to Rumiko Takahashi. Silent Hill belongs to Konami. This is just for fun, please don't sue.

Author notes: Anything spoken in bold is English, everything else is Japanese.

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The rain fell in Nerima, and the police had came and gone. Questions had been asked, responses given, afterwards certain people had left the others, while others were taken away. The amount of water that poured down onto the now quiet streets was drowning, as if someone was trying to wash the last few days away. However, in Nerima, water doesn't clean things, it changes them.

"Hikaru Gosunkugi! Open this door now!"

Nerima's wannabe mage flung open the door in a hurry. Having Nabiki Tendo at your door was unpleasant, while having her yelling was bad. Having her angry was utterly terrifying, and after the last few days...he felt that he was two steps away from experiencing the end of the world.

Before he could get a word out the Japanese girl clad in a black sweater, jeans, and an umbrella in her hand, she shoved a letter against Gosunkugi's chest. "What do you know about the town of Silent Hill in America?"

The first reaction was confusion as his mind tried to catch up to what happened. The second was absolute relief as, after a brief analysis of her actions, he came to the conclusion that Nabiki was NOT here to destroy him. The third reaction was a dead stop of all other reactions as he realized what exactly she had said. "W-w-what town?"

"Silent Hill, it's in New England. A little resort town."

It was confirmed; Gosunkugi's brain went back into panic mode. "W-why do you want to know about that place?"

There was a long pause, as Nabiki stared at the meek boy, her eyes reaching a new temperature of cold not thought possible by science. Her voice went quiet as she responded to Hikaru's question. "Apparently that's where their honeymoon is. I got a letter."

Gosunkugi's eyes went wide. "But...that's not-"

"So I decided to check up on this 'quaint, sleepy town' and I found a few interesting websites that mention it. ' ' and other interesting sites that are your area of expertise."

"Nabiki...if whatever you got is from Silent Hill, then they're dead."

"No."

"You don't understand Nabiki! That place is hell on ear-"

"No."

Hikaru Gosunkugi did not know that much about the town of Silent Hill actually. He had occasionally seen it referenced when he was researching occult subjects looking for a way to defeat Ranma. On a whim one day he had decided to look into the infamous town. The two hours worth of reading on it had provided a clear enough picture for him to know that it was a place he never wanted to visit, and sure as hell didn't want to live there.

"Nabiki, I don't know enough about that place to help you, but believe me don't go there! I mean, what you're talking about, it sounds too much like the Sunderland Case."

"So you do know about it." Her eyes still had that frozen quality to them. She gestured to the paper in his hands. "Tell me what I want to know. If I'm happy, I'll clear your debt."

"What?"

"Every last yen."

A long quiet pause between the two as Gosunkugi weighed his options. "I'll be back in five minutes. Do you want to wait inside?"

"You have three, and no."

Gosunkugi ran for the family computer to print out what information he could pull up quickly. He shook his head clear in silent chastisement as he felt a twinge of elation that his debt to the Ice Queen would be gone. 'NO! I'm sending her to die there. I have to do something! I mean she could be alive!'

A second voice chimed in his voice full of spite 'Like you did anything at the wedding? No Hikaru, you wont be doing anything here. You warned her, you know that she's going to go anyway. She knows some of her family's art. She will be fine, what you need to do is make sure she knows what she's getting into.'

The first voice came back 'Don't listen to him! Besides, there HAVE been cases where people don't see anything at all, and they really could be alive, maybe you should go! You could see her again, save her from that Hell! You can do it man!'

'Oh no, oh HELL no! You are not going into that place. Hikaru! Are you listening to me?! You don't NEED to go! She is gone!'

As the last page printed out Gosunkugi had made up his mind. He grabbed a suitcase and filled it with odds and ends of junk that might have a use, maybe, well you never knew. He went to the front door where Nabiki was still standing in the rain.

She looked him up and down, "I only have airfare for one."

"But you-"

"No." She grabbed the paper out of his hands, then walked away from the Gosunkugi household.

'I told you! She can't protect you there! I mean, look at you! Do you really thing you can survive more than a few seconds there?'

"SHUT UP!" Gosunkugi collapsed at the door as the fragile wall he built up to hide these last few days away shattered. As he lay there on the ground sobbing that first voice inside whispered to him. 'Go, go there Hikaru. Find her, find her! And don't let anyone get in your way Hikaru.'

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As Nabiki walked through the ruined shopping district of Nerima, she stared at the burnt out, colorless husks of the stores. She could almost hear the screams again, as the water caused the charred wood to warp, scrape, crack, and rot.

She shook her head while she passed the two ash-grayed corpses of once-familiar restaurants, and considered that she would never be able to eat ramen or okonomiyaki again without collapsing into tears. The madness she had left behind only days ago, had just spread out to all corners of the ward, consumed it and eating at it like decay, and left a lifeless, broken, and dark shell. With everything else that had happened, Nabiki supposed that she had developed a little madness now as well. After all, one doesn't get letters and pictures from dead people.

She knew this.

Silent Hill was a town in America with a dark history. People inexplicably going insane, committing senseless murders, rumors that it was the base of a rather powerful cult all spoke of the ill within the seemingly desolate burg. There was a very very good chance that if she entered the town, she would end up leaving in a straightjacket, or a body bag.

She knew this too

However, if there was a chance that she was there, even a small glimmer of a fraction, an utterly improbable chance, she would have to go. If she was there then Nabiki would find her, and then face all the others. She would apologize, confess, forgive, repent, and then kill.

This... she knew as an absolute truth.

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Nabiki looked over the material she had gotten from Gosunkugi. She was mildly impressed with the depth of it. There were the usual LexisNexus news items and some maps of the town and surrounding areas. The truly interesting information were the articles written by David Burlew. A journalist famous for his exposes upon the town and the peculiar goings on within. He had gone missing last year, the details of his disappearance were vague and ties to the town were obviously present. The result had catapulted his work from the fifth page story of the Weekly World News to the first page of the American Occultist Journal. Both of which earning the same amount of credibility

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_The geographic location of Silent Hill is designed for isolation. A basin set inside the Catskills, the only way inside one of the two ravines leading into it. Lake Toluca located dead center of the basin serves to effective bisect the town into the elder commercial district and the newer part of town that has the larger part of the residential area. Though only 30 minutes away from a town in either direction it still retains a sense of isolation. It's almost as if the earth itself is trying to cut it off from the rest of the world, like a malignant tumor festering, eating away at the heath of the world, spiritually and physically trying to reach out with its demonic tentacles and destroy everything holy and good in the world._

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'He certainly has a flair for the dramatic.' Nabiki thought to herself. She opened her carryon bag and took out a small orange bottle. As she took off the child-safe cap she reminded herself that she needed to file the paperwork so Dr. Tofu would receive his memorial hospital. She popped two of the plum colored octagons and slipped into unconciousness. Nabiki did receive a dreamless sleep as her plane traveled and landed at LAX. She quietly transferred to her next plane and repeated her ritual with the purple pills.

This time however, perhaps Nabiki needed to take one more pill, maybe the past events finally hit home, or it could be Burlew's demonic tentacles striking out. Either way, when Nabiki slept on that flight, she dreamed.

Nabiki fidgeted in her bridesmaid dress, maybe it was time she start to consider her options. Well there may be time for that later, at least she hoped so, after all the third time was the charm, right? They had tried a small private ceremony again, big mistake. This time, through no fault of her own this time, Ryoga had wandered into the chapel of course at the time of objections. Following him was the Chinese Trio, then the Kunos, the Ukyo and soon it was a giant riot all over again. Nabiki then applied simple Nerima logic to it, if a small quiet ceremony created a disaster...then maybe they should invite everybody to get it be peaceful! After countless invitations and RSVPs she actually thought that this might work.

The Kuno's were actually behaving, with the help of Nodoka she had found some old obscure samurai codes no one bothered to take off the books. As a result they were honor bound to sit there, enjoy the wedding, and congradulate the bride and groom. If they didn't then after the wedding there would be another ceremony, and then a funeral.

She shot a look at Cologne, she returned it with the look of absolute utter hatred and death. She sort of felt sorry for the old ghoul, for a moment. The matriarch had experienced the full wrath of the Middle Tendo. If she or Shampoo so much as blinked wrong then health inspectors, immigration officials, a few bigots focused on racial purity, a gentleman in a suit with tattoos on his back, and an ill tempered and very respected food critic would all descend upon the Nekoken. Add to that the Musk and Chinese Government receiving a complete file detailing the activities, location, and weaknesses of the amazon's village. Needless to say she had them over the barrel, a bus, and a flaming hoop.

Ukyo was tough. Nabiki decided to try the wealth card, using her contacts to ensure her getting an amazingly lucrative catering deal. If she decided to not hold her peace, then she, her father, and anyone closely related to her would be rendered bankrupt.

Ryoga managed to get lost between the distance of the dressing room and the chapel. Nabiki knew he would probably show up again, but Nabiki had Ranma make him the best man. Ranma was more than happy to do it really, they were friends of a sort. Nabiki had also gotten Akari and her pets to come and made her a bridesmaid. A passing mention in jest about the 'duty' the best man has to perform with the bridesmaid with both Ryoga and Akari present. If Ryoga didn't faint from the blood loss first he would most likely not be a problem even if he showed up at the objection part.

Tsubasa, Konatsu, and Mousse were more than happy to help out. They helped decorate, general security for any rouge fiancées/rivals, and general fashion and decorating advice. That last one mostly from the two crossdessers, they had been very helpful, disregarding that little argument on if they should be bridesmaids or best men. Mousse was Ryoga's stand in for best man, also he had been dropping hints about how that there may need to be a second wedding soon after this one. Nabiki could hope he was right, but the smart money was on things continuing on normally as far as Shampoo and Mousse went. However, Shampoo had kept on stealing looks at Mousse when not looking at Ranma crying or Akane growling.

Genma, and Nodoka were sobbing with joy. Genma extra hard because his wife found out about their curses and chose to not execute the contract. Also she and Genma had rekindled the romance in their lives. Nabiki didn't really want to know the details but there were rumors that included the name Katherine the Great.

Her father...well the word deluge seemed to be appropriate.

Dr. Tofu began to go through the ceremony. Apparently he was an ordained minister at one point of his life, not too surprising Nabiki supposed. A small miracle had occurred as he was perfectly calm despite Kasumi standing a few feet away as one of the two maids of honor.

"Wonderful!" Tofu clapped his hands! "I know pronounce you man and wife!"

Nabiki let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding in. The point in time when she was sure that the world would collapse into chaos had passed and nothing had happened. As the couple slipped on their rings and kissed Nabiki took one long look around the room. Everyone looked happy, even Cologne's fury had cooled. Nabiki almost could have sworn she saw Mommy standing at the doors to the altar tears streaming down her cheeks.

That's when Akane turned to Tofu and snapped his neck.

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Nabiki woke with a start. She managed to keep from screaming that time. She disembarked the plane, grabbed her luggage that had miraculously not been lost in transit and proceeded to the taxi port.

**"Silent Hill, please."** Nabiki hoped that those English lessons had paid off.

The gentleman in the turban turned around to look at the Japanese woman in his backseat. "**Silent Hill? You have wonderful taste in vacation spots, my wife and I went there for our honeymoon. Beautiful place."**

Nabiki just stared back at her driver and smiled. "**Yes, my sister and brother-in-law took theirs there as well."** Nabiki was a little impressed with herself. True, her English was slow and had a heavy accent to it, but it was passable.

The driver smiled back at the woman and after a short conversation discussing fares he took off towards the Catskills.

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_I believe that there are several Silent Hills all existing in the same place. I've interviewed many people, each one giving me a different story. Some people, mostly young children, find Silent Hill to be a gorgeous place, full of life and peaceful. The majority of visitors and residents see it just as an average town, no better or worse than their own hometown. Part of this group do recount times when a dense mist filled the town and it appeared to be abandoned, harmless as any ghost town. The rest recount tales of filth and decay, a town broken and dying, and within that group there are people who tell stories about things even worse._

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The taxi parked at the observation deck to the lake on the elder commercial side of the town.

**"I would love to take you into town, but the road is out ahead, construction. This is far as I can go."**

**"This is fine."**

**"Well at least let me give you this map to the area."** The taxi driver handed Nabiki a visitor's brochure that included a map of the area and several descriptions of the local attractions.

**"Thank you."** Nabiki watched as the friendly driver turned around and drove away. He was very kind to her, telling her about the beauties of the town and asking innocent questions about her visit. She didn't like lying to him.

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She dug out of her duffle bag the two items she had received, a picture of Ranma and Akane smiling, the lake to their sides, framed in sunset. A letter was included detailing the beauty and the fun they were having. She held the picture up to attempt to gauge where it was taken. The only clue she could get was a sign on a building to the other side. Pete's Bowl-a-rama. She checked the map again and found the place. She knew that, most likely, they hadn't gone bowling but for now it was the only lead she had.

Of course she couldn't forget the simple fact that it was physically impossible for these two items to exist. Kasumi had returned from the morgue teary eyed after identifying the bodies.

However impossible or not, Nabiki Tendo had to see what was going on here, she was obligated to get answers. For her family, for the Saotomes, for all the wedding guests, and most importantly for herself.

. Nabiki sighed and turned to walk down the observation deck into the town of Silent Hill.

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_But there's one constant I've discovered about Silent Hill. Everyone who enters that town is there for a very specific reason._

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Author's Notes: Reviews, comments, flames are all welcome. David Burlew comes from Dan Birlew A.K.A President Evil, writer of the Silent Hill Strategy Guides and some very deep plot anyalsises on Gamefaqs. I would also like to thank the invaluable help of WFROSE. If you haven't read any of his works DO IT NOW!


	2. Variable & Veil

Grace & Silver Chapter 2

Variable and Veil

Disclaimer: Ranma belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Silent Hill belongs to Konami. This is just for fun please don't sue.

Author's Notes: Everything spoken and signs that are in bold are in English. Everything else is in Japanese.

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Nabiki tugged her windbreaker tighter against her form, as she walked down Nathan Avenue, conscious of the unusual chill and murky dampness that rose with the dull and thick mists from the lake. It wasn't unbearable, but it was just enough to make walking around miserable.

She took a moment to re-examine her tourist's brochure, ignoring its proclamations of the splendors of this delightful resort town. She skimmed past the cheerful picture of the purple mascot of the amusement park, Robbie the Rabbit and studied the map of the town included in the brochure.

Much to Nabiki's irritation, Pete's Bowl-A-Rama was located in West South Vale. Her oh-so-friendly taxi driver had dropped her off two miles away from town, and from the map, she figured she would have to walk down the nature trail, down into town, and through East South Vale; a half an hour long, cold, wet, miserable, long walk.

Silent Hill was living up to its name quite well. Nabiki had yet to see any people, in fact the only thing she had seen that counted as living creatures were the trees in the greenbelts planted along the streets.

"It's quiet. Too quiet." Nabiki smiled at the classic cliché. Even if it was a stupid thing to say, didn't make it wrong. The only sound was the muffled wind as it blew through the trees that provided her only greeting as she approached the town. As corny as it was, Nabiki still felt like she had walked into the opening scene of a horror movie. Of course, if Burlew and Gosunkugi were right then she wasn't that far off.

After a long and uncomfortable trek, she reached the bowling alley, and took a look around. The park was a few blocks away, barely visible in the mist; that was probably where they took the picture.

'Well this was a great idea,' Nabiki thought to herself. 'Now what? Hope that a clue comes crashing out of the blue?' Right then, as if on cue, the sound of pins crashing down and the blaring sound of a ball game became audible from within the bowling alley.

"You have to be kidding me..." she stated dryly. She sighed, as she entered the building. 'Well as long as I don't have to strip down to my underwear I suppose I'll be okay. After all,' She smiled ruefully. 'Virgins never die in horror movies. 'Course if that were the case pretty much all of the Wrecking Company would survive, too.'

Pete's Bowl-A-Rama fit almost every one of Nabiki's stereotypes of American Culture; the 50 lanes, empty pizza boxes and beer cans that littered the floor, right down to the score display overhead with the amusing names of POO and ASS. Truly this was the cholesterol encrusted, post bypass surgery, proverbial heart of America.

Nabiki's wry grin left her face; someone had been here, very recently too as the machinery had just began to reset the pins for the next bowler. The ball return caddy was making that soft humming noise, as it reclaimed the sphere from where it had landed. Apparently after a futile attempt to take out the number six pin and pick up a spare, such a shame, POO would have to settle for a measly 9 points.

**Phunk! **

The black ball pushed itself out of the return chute, and rolled into its waiting position in the caddy. Nabiki was just about to leave this physical homage to Middle-America, when the return shoot started to have complications.

**CLACK-CHAWCHAWCHAW-KIKIKIKI-PHACKSHAAA-PANG! Clatter clatter clatter**

A gun rested in the ball caddy. Perfectly intact, scratch-less, and presumably working even after the complications it experienced from its emergence from the womb of the machinery below.

Nabiki was amazed, she had heard all of the nasty jokes about the American gun crazy culture but this was pushing even that image. True she could picture some overweight man in a backwards baseball cap taking a gun to a bowling alley, but to actually throwing it down the alley? Someone, perhaps the illustrious POO, had expressed extreme anger in his failure to achieve that sacred 300 all bowlers aspire too.

Nevertheless, Nabiki decided to not pick up the firearm, despite the growing temptation. She knew nothing about guns, and was more likely to shoot off her own foot than harm any hostile. She did know some of her family's art; not enough to take on anyone back home certainly, but for these Joe Six-pack Tourists here, she would be fine.

**BANG! CLATTER PLOP PLOP PLOP!!**

Nabiki spun her head down the alley where the sound had come from. A person... someone had fallen on top of all of the pins in alley seventeen. He was a male, Nabiki guessed by his build and had black hair...in a ponytail! Nabiki ran down the alley to get a better look, as she approached she realized that he didn't have any clothes on. She started to take off her windbreaker, it didn't matter if it wasn't **Him**, anyone in that position should be helped, discuss rescue fees later. She was over halfway down the lane when she stopped midway as a rush of emotions hit her.

'_IlikehimHesNOTbetterthanmeImscaredofhim'._

'What the Hell was THAT?!' That question was quickly silenced as the person stood up and looked at Nabiki.

Nabiki screamed in terror. That creature standing about ten feet away was decidedly NOT human.

It was humanoid, it had two arms and two legs, a torso, and a head. That was where the similarities to _Homo sapiens_ ended. It had no face, nor genitals, it was like a flesh colored mannequin with a growth of red and black hair tied into a ponytail decorated its head. That wasn't the worst of it though.

Its flesh _moved_.

It didn't move like flesh does when people walk. It...writhed within the skin, churning and shifting with wet, horrible sounds. Large drops of sweat streamed down its body. It was like a giant flesh colored water balloon with its shape constantly changing; the fluids, organs, and bone structure inside was causing the skin to stretch and warp.

Right before her eyes, the thing shrank in size and started to develop hips and breasts, then midway through that shift it went in reverse and started to gain height and muscle. Then it shifted again to female features but only on one side, then again. It was in a constant state of shift, a living variable.

'FEARLOVEENVYLOVEINFERIOR!!!' 

The emotions were rushing through Nabiki's mind making it almost impossible to think. The thing started to walk forwards, that sound of shifting water becoming even more disgusting as it moved.

Nabiki regained her senses as she fought past the rush of emotions. She had no idea what the Hell this thing was, where it had come from, or what was going on. But she figured that if she punched it hard enough in the head it would go down and not come up. She took a stance and attempted to put her fist into the varying monstrosity's skull.

It did not go well.

Her fist sunk into the featureless face offering no resistance. The skin sunk into the flesh, Nabiki realized that the water balloon comparison was very accurate. Also whatever was inside it was hot; burning, scalding hot, scorching her hand in blistering heat. Nabiki emitted another scream, this one of pain, as she slowly managed to be able to pull her hand free.

Next plan: Kick it. Kick it very hard. This plan had as much success as the first one did. Her foot sunk into the chest of the variable creature, as soon as she realized it was happening she pulled back so she just barely felt the sting. This time it was numbing cold, not searing hot.

Plan three: the gun! Nabiki took off like a shot back to the ball caddy where, thanks to the fury of POO, the item that would save her ass was laying.

'..._doilikehimiamjustasgoodashim...'_

That feeling in her gut died away the further she got from the creature, dying down to little more than a loud whisper. Thankfully it moved slowly as the shifting of its center of balance made walking difficult.

Nabiki snatched up the gun, aimed at the thing and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. 'Crapcrapcrap! What's wrong? It has bullets! So what could be wro-... safety! The safety must be on! Okay I need to take it off...now how do I do that and not shoot myself?'

'LOVEFEARENVY!!' 

There it was again! Nabiki turned around and found that the monster was right behind her so suddenly!

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!!!" Nabiki jumped back in time to dodge the Variable's attempt to smother her. A large droplet flew off from the creature and hit Nabiki square in the chest, the scalding water burning through her clothes.

Nabiki ran back down the bowling alley as she discovered what part of the gun was the safety and turned it off. She spun around as that rush of raw emotion hit her in the gut again. The variable was right next to her again, how did it move so damn fast? She only lost sight of it for a moment!

"DIE! DIE!! DIE!!!" She pulled the trigger once, twice, three times, the entire clip. At this rage there was no way she could miss.

Red fluid leaked out from the puncture wounds, as the blood pooled on the floor the creature with the variable gender's skin deflated like a balloon that was letting its air out slowly. At the end of the gruesome display the skin laid limp on the floor, twitching slightly. Nabiki savagely kicked the flesh colored sack, the twitching stopped. Nabiki kept on kicking the thing, sobbing occasionally screaming a word that was a hybrid between 'die' and 'sorry'.

After five minutes of this she walked away from the corpse and sat down in the middle of lane fifteen. Nabiki's hand throbbed, she took a look at it. It was all red, she could see where the blisters would form and where the skin was starting to peel. Her chest was in better shape, just a little red.

'What was that thing?' Nabiki tried to make sense of what had just happened. No matter what kind of explanation she tried to attach to this incident she still just couldn't make it sound realistic, even by Nerima standards. Thankfully her thoughts were cut off abruptly by the sensation of a bowling ball impacting into her side at the kidney, and nearly cracking a floating rib.

Nabiki cried out in pain, jerking forward from the blow. The unmistakable sound of another bowling ball hurtling down at her became audible. Calling upon her neglected skills in her family's art, she went into a roll and got into lane fourteen, just seconds before the sphere impacted into the objects designed for abuse. Nabiki stood up carefully, minding her pained side, and looked at who or what was throwing the balls at her.

'..._trust...'_

It was a young woman in a blood spattered bridal veil. An orange bowling ball in one hand and a meat tenderizer mallet in the other, it too stained with blood. She waved happily to Nabiki, then tossed the orange bowling ball at her. It sailed through the air and bounced with a **PUNGGGGG** sound. It rolled to Nabiki's feet, it was a plastic bowling ball for young children, most likely it should come with six brightly colored pins. Still brandishing shreds of the plastic wrapping, and the MAXINE'S TOYS logo displayed proudly right above the bar code.

Nabiki braced herself best as she could, and tried to run to the girl in the bloody bridal veil. "Wait!" The girl just laughed and took off through the entrance to the bowling alley.

Nabiki reached the front of the alley and collapsed against the counter where people rented the ridiculous shoes needed to play. "This is Hell. There's no other answer, this must be Hell."

She realized that she was talking to herself, 'Not a good sign Nabiki. You've got to keep things together. Who was that just now? I couldn't see her face, have I met her...that mallet... Aka-...' She shook her head hard. 'No, no, impossible. Owowowow...' The pain in her chest flared up. 'Let's see what we can do about this first.' She lifted up her shirt to see the damage, and found the large purplish bruise on her abdomen she had been half-expecting.

A quick search behind the shoe vendor counter revealed a first aid kit, and as if the cosmic forces of karma were rewarding her for living through the last five minutes, there were two boxes of bullets as well. Nabiki took back every last joke she ever made or laughed at about America and its gun craze. May Kami-sama bless Charlton Hesston.

After five aspirin, a few bandages around her chest, her left hand tightly wrapped with a salve applied, a fully loaded gun, and two of the flat red cylinders from her own pharmacy, Nabiki left the bowling alley to pursue the girl in the bloody bridal veil. As soon as she left the bowling alley, she knew something was terribly wrong.

It was snowing, in the middle of June, the white flakes fell to the ground, reducing the already horrid visibility to claustrophobic proportions. Nathan Avenue, the road she had just walked down, was now impassable. A huge, gaping fissure ran across it; a maw open in the earth with a throat as deep as the abyss. Finally, there were the whispers in her mind, like when she was a distance away from the creature, only this time, they were all around her it was almost deafening.

_Doilikehim_

_Sosadshesamazing_

_YESOHYESMORE_

_Hatethemallgoback_

_Stupidbitchcantleavehimalone_

_Amilikethat_

_Stupidoldfool_

_MAMMAMAMMAMAMMA_

_Hatethembothidotsshutup_

_Weakbuthessweetpathetic_

_Whowhatareyou_

_RUNRUNRUNRUNRUN_

_Trust_

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Nabiki put her hands over her ears in a desperate attempt to block out the noise. Then as if in accordance to her wishes the whispers faded away, she removed her hands. She could still hear something, a slight buzzing in the back of her head, but it was easily ignored. It sounded almost like radio static.

'Now where do I go?' Nabiki's mind drifted back to the bowling alley and the toy ball the girl in the bloody bridal veil threw at her. "Maxine's Toys." Damnit she was talking to herself again.

Looking over her map, she found to her dismay that while Maxine's Toys was listed in the shops section, its exact location was not. Seeing as Nathan Avenue was no longer an option, she decided to walk down Carroll Street.

'Carroll...heh, well this is a wonderland of sorts I suppose.' She laughed to herself silently. This place was getting to her. Now she knew why so many cases of insanity had come from this little Hellhole. One hour here and she was already half dead and half crazed. The sound of a scream and something hitting flesh stopped Nabiki's musings short. Someone was fighting something, she could make out the figures in the mist ahead.

**"WHAT ARE YOU? GET AWAY!! GET AWAY!!!" THWACK!!**

Nabiki knew she would be better off running away from the fight. It wasn't as if she hadn't left people in dangerous situations before, like falling from a helicopter without a parachute. This, however, was different. As much as Nabiki would have loved to run, get out of this town, and leave all of these horrid memories behind in some therapists' couch, she couldn't just let a person get killed by these things here. She wouldn't want that to happen to anyone, not even Happosai. Ignoring all good sense, she ran towards the figures in the snowy mist. She didn't dare try and shoot from here; she would more likely hit the person she was trying to save than the creature.

As she approached the figures she saw an American woman with long blond hair beating that gender variable, water balloon thing with a long piece of pipe. Nabiki ran up to provide assistance to her. At the exact moment Nabiki was behind the woman she swung her pipe back to deliver a blow to the creature's skull.  
Sadly, the thing's skull wasn't the only one that suffered a blow.

Nabiki's thought as she blacked out was a mixed emotional scream of pain, anger at the woman, anger at herself, and fear.

Then there was nothing.

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Author's Notes: For those of you concerned about Nabiki's wounds let me ease your fears, this is NOTHING compared to what follows. Again a thousand thank yous to my beta reader WFROSE. (He's a genius. I swear.) As always reviews, praise, flames, etc. is always appreciated.


	3. Mercy & Bloody Shadow

Grace and Silver

Chapter 3

Mercy and Bloody Shadow

Disclaimer: Takahashi owns Ranma and the Wrecking Co. Konami owns Silent Hill. This is just for fun, please don't sue. Thank you.

Note: Anything spoken in is in English. Everything else is Japanese.

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**"**OhmyGod! ImsorryImsorryImsorry!! Oh, please be alright! I'm so sorry!**" **The American woman was hovered over the unconscious woman anxiously, fretting over any damage she might have done to the apparently Asian woman. She hadn't even realized that she had hit her until after that...that thing...was dead, causing one form of panic to be replaced with one less centered on self-perseveration. She had half-carried, half-dragged Nabiki to safest place she could think of nearby, a sleazy strip bar Heaven's Night. Satisfied with her haven, she searched Nabiki's purse some aspirin and possibly identification, discovering the first aid kit inside. With the minor medical supplies, she proceeded to bandage the victim of her own panic.

Her relief was visibly present when the young Japanese woman opened her eyes. She sat up in the booth seat she had been lying on. She gingerly touched the side of her head, sensing the bandage over what would probably be a very bad bruise. American backed away, as the other began shouting angrily in rapid Japanese. She had no idea what she was saying, but as some hand gestures were universal she could make a pretty good guess.

Nabiki was righteously pissed off. She had tried to help and what did she get for her troubles? A mild concussion! This girl was paying for her medical bills and then some. She looked at her assailant, and mused that once again America did not fail to live up to its stereotypical image.

The woman was half a foot taller than Nabiki, with clear blue eyes that were set well with her blue halter-top and jeans, and long blond hair that was well kept. Most likely she was Nabiki's age, give or take a year or two. She wore unremarkable tennis shoes, which offset the decadence of the two gold stud earrings on her left ear and the diamond ring on her hand. The ring was on her right hand though, marking that it was just ornamental.

**"**I'm sorry. It was an accident," the woman offered up, almost meekly in apology to the infuriated woman, **"**Butthere was this...this...**" **

**"**Monster**?" **Nabiki offered, hoping she found the correct English word, while cringing at the woman's, 'Tourist Speak'. Slow, halting, and unnecessarily loud. However, Nabiki could safely presume that the extent of her Japanese was limited to the words sushi, sake, and goodbye, which left her few options.

Her temper had finally cooled, and she was looking around at her new locale with the appropriate distaste that was equated to her sex and orientation. A pause as she took a deep breath and nodded. **"**It is alright. I understand, this place..." Nabiki couldn't think of the proper English word to dub this Hell.

Instead of dawdling on a fitting descriptive, Nabiki took in her surroundings, "Where is it we are**?" **Nabiki internally groaned, feeling like a moron speaking in and even recognizing the Pidgin English so many Japanese tend to fall into

**"**Oh wonderful, you speak English!" The woman bubbled, glad that they were able to communicate. Nonetheless, she made sure her words were clear for the foreign woman "We are at Heaven's Night, a strip joint. Near the bowling alley**." **

**"**It is... seems to be so**..." **Nabiki took out her brochure and began to scour it over as she obtained her location. Once found she turned to her attacker/rescuer. **"**What is your name**?" **

**"**My name is Mercy, Mercy Lucre**." **She extended her hand in greeting, allowing Nabiki to take it while introducing herself.

"I am Nabiki Tendo. Your name Mercy, is that common American name?"

Mercy smiled, as if she was reminded of a private joke,"No it has a special meaning."

**"**How is it so?"

There was a glimmer of mirth in the blond woman's soft blue eyes"It is a name that gives great power to others."

The two women spent the next two minutes in awkward silence. Nabiki checking Mercy's bandage in the mirror, as Mercy moved from the booth, and rummaged around the bar in an attempt to find anything remotely useful.

**"**Whatwas that thing? It was not human, was it**?" **Mercy asked Nabiki; thankful for her new companion, but still weary of whatever lurked outside.

"Hai, bakemono desu-"Nabiki calmed herself, remembering to stay in English, "It is a monster. Not a human, the way it does change alone..." She shuddered in memory of her own encounter.

****"I know, it's just not right!" Mercy quickly replied, making it difficult for Nabiki to keep up, "I mean nothing can move like that. Hell, nothing should LOOK like that...and how it's hair changed from blond to brown and back." That last part was more to herself than Nabiki.

'Blond and brown?' Nabiki thought to herself. 'It did not have red or black hair in a ponytail. Just like...' She violently shook her head, deciding the creatures varied. "Mercy, why are you here in Silent Hill."

****"I'm looking for my husband Jeff. He has been missing for a month, I know he has family here," the blonde woman answered, unable to help the tint of concern coloring her voice.

****"Can you find him?"

****"No," Mercy answered, "I had just left his sister's house when I heard this siren and I passed out. When I woke up, there was this mist all around and those things. So I grabbed a pipe and started trying to find anyone."

****"And have you found anyone? One other person that is not me?"

Mercy shook her head sadly. **"**No, just you. Well...there was this other guy but he ran off as I got near and I lost him. So I just pegged him as a monster or something."

Nabiki's eyes lit up with a faint hope, **"**You are sure it was a man? Where was it you see him? What were his looks?**" **

Mercy was a little taken aback by Nabiki's rapid-fire questions. **"**P-pretty sure, East South Vale by a toy store, and I couldn't see his face. He was wearing a tuxedo."

Another long silence between the two, Nabiki knew that this just screamed trap, but what other option did she have really? Sighing, she turned to the blonde American, "This toy store it has the name Maxine's Toys? Where is its location?"

**"**Maxine's Toys?**" **Mercy took out her own map, a triple A travel guide, and looked over it for a while. **"**Yes, corner of Lindsey and Sanders, across the street from the flower shop. That's about where I saw the guy in the tux**." **

**"**That is to East South ValeFrom where I comeshimatta." Nabiki muttered to herself. **"**Thank you for you help Mercyand be cautious of harming others.**" **She started to go for the door.

**"**Wait! How are you going to go back**?" **Mercy asked.

**"**I am going to go down Nathan..." Nabiki paused in recollection, "Mou... I forgot I can not go down that road."

The blond woman nodded in confirmation at Nabiki's realization, "There are a lot of roads that you can not go down. This screwy town has blocked off roads all over. Here, let me have your map for a moment.**" **

Mercy snatched the brochure out of Nabiki's hands, and started to mark on it with a red marker. When she was done she handed it back to Nabiki with a haughty flourish and a smug smile.

**"...**Thank you." Nabiki replied coldly, a feeling of dislike for this woman was creeping up on her. **"**Perhaps we should be traveling together? There is safety in numbers, as you Americans say.**" **

****"Thank you for the offer but you and I are going in completely different directions." Mercy responded, allowing a touch of regret in her voice.

****"Oh? Where is it you are going to?" Nabiki enquired, just in case it was necessary to seek the woman out.

****"Brookhaven Hospital. Jeff is there, I know it."

Nabiki nodded; the woman seemed very adamant, **"**I hope you find him."

**"**I hope you find who you're looking for," Mercy said, sincerely, "Is it that guy in the photo in your bag?"

**"**Yes he's my sis-...wait. You went through my possessions?!**" **

**"**I had to! I needed that first aid kit you had**!" **

Another long pause as Nabiki fumed a little, she definitely wasn't taking a liking to Mercy. However, people trapped in a foreign country in a little isolated town that is quite literally going to Hell can't afford to be picky about their allies.

Mercy nodded, and in apology for the concussion, gave Nabiki a first aid kit she had found in the dressing room, as well as one of the two boxes of handgun bullets the other woman had found under the bar. As she sat on one of the stools quietly loading the bullets into the clip she heard Mercy leave.

Nabiki paused she stared into the mirror, her mind elsewhere. Why didn't she like Mercy? It wasn't as if she was a bad person. Just in some way the woman grated on her nerves. The fact that she had hit her upside the head didn't help things. Also the way afterwards, when Mercy apologized, she stopped being concerned about Nabiki.

That was probably it, if Mercy had a little more sense of her surroundings, she wouldn't have whacked Nabiki. In fact, the way she talked, even in 'Tourist Speak', she had this arrogant sense of being and that just rubbed Nabiki the wrong way. The way she had left; it was with no goodbye, no good luck wish, not even a nod. Just as soon as her obligation to clean up her own mess was complete, she left without so much as a slightest glance back at the strange foreign girl.

She jumped in surprise when she saw someone else in the bar. After a moment, she realized that it was her own reflection in the bar mirror. Nabiki peeked under her bandage where she had hit the thing in the bowling alley, blisters has developed and her skin had taken on a nasty red color, that punch to that thing had burnt her worse than she thought, it had to be second degree. The bandage on the side of her head throbbed painfully, and her eyes were bloodshot with bags under them.

"Heh, hello Tendo Nabiki. Welcome to Hell." Her chuckle lacked any mirth to it.

She got up from the stool and went to the door, before pausing to dig in her duffle bag for one of her orange bottles. She took out one and extracted two grass green pills in the shape of diamonds. She slammed them back along with a swig from a bottle of seltzer lying on the floor that had long gone flat. "I hope we both get out of this alive."

She closed the door, and started on the long trek back to East South Vale. She could decide if she was referring to herself and Mercy, or herself and her reflection. She did not notice that she had been talking to herself this time.

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Another recent acquaintance of Nabiki's exited the men's bathroom, smiling through her bloody bridal veil. She picked the bloody paper towels Mercy had used as an early makeshift bandage for Nabiki; she went to the mirror and used them to draw on the glass. The end result was a simplistic, crude outline of Nabiki's form.

"Bitch."

She swung the meat tenderizer mallet she carried into the reflective surface. It shattered into hundreds of fragments that landed on the alcohol stained ground. The woman in the bloody bridal veil left Heaven's Night, humming the wedding march.

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The trip back to East South Vale was not going to be easy. If Mercy's map was correct, then the only path back to Maxine's Toys would be a long and winding set of roads. Nathan Avenue was impassible; she had seen that for herself. Katz Street, according to Mercy, had become a terrain of twisted metal debris that was once cars and shopping carts from a nearby market.

The only path available to her was to travel down Carroll to Rendell, and then head south on Monson, as a large wall of melted plastic blocked any passage north. Once on Saul, she need to follow it to Neely and proceed north to Katz as the jagged metal barricade stopped at the entrance to the Woodside Apartments. It was pointless to travel to Nathan from Neely; the largest road in town had developed the largest potholes in the world. From Katz it was a short walk to Lindsey, and from there just a half a block to travel from there. Then, she would finally reach the damn store.

"I hate this town." Inwardly she winced as she realized that she had talking aloud to herself again. She looked at the plastic wall blocking off Monson, it looked like someone had put it together with tens of thousands of melted red plastic Legos, and shook her head. 'This place is a demented fun house, why does everything have to be a damn obstacle?'

Not wanting to have to play along with the town's twisted game, she attempted to jump the plastic wall. It wasn't that big, just ten feet tall. If she got a running start, and hit the jump off of the Oldsmobile ruin next to the wall just right then she might be able to grab the top and pull herself up.

She took a few steps back and prepared to run. 'Mental Note, if you make it back home start training again. In case I have to fight through Hell again.' She made it three steps when she stopped dead.

_'sostrongiwishiwaslikethatsuchashame'_

"Damnit!" She pulled out her gun and immediately ran to the nearest building, pressing herself against the wall. This time was starkly different from the bowling alley as now her mind was fully functional and working top speed.

'Option one: these things can't see too well, if at all from the lack of eyes. Find out where it is from that sloshing sound and stay away from it,' Nabiki strategized, 'I can use the mist to hide in, and move slowly through it. Most importantly, don't take your eyes off it! Those things seem to catch up to you pretty quick when you're not paying attention to them. If it sees me, keep moving backwards and keep it in sight. When I'm a safe distance away, probably a block, turn around and run. Run very fast.

Nabiki grew a slight wry smile, 'I can always shoot it to death, too. If it does catch up, put a few bullets into its head. Hopefully that'll kill it or at least make it collapse. Okay Nabiki we are ready.'

Nabiki tensed in preparation, expecting to hear the sloshing of the thing any moment. What she didn't expect was to feel something slip around her neck.

"...My son...my son..." The thing behind her pulled its hands tight against Nabiki's neck.

'SHAMEHONORPITYHONOR'

Nabiki froze. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think. Worse yet, she could feel the hands, rope, or whatever it was actually cutting into her neck.

"GET OFF ME!" She lifted her left leg and kicked at the wall behind her as hard as she could.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!" Whatever it was let loose a horrible scream and let go of Nabiki's neck. She ran out two steps into the street and fired two precious bullets into the thing.

A thing that resembled a thick piece of black fabric cut into a human figure collapsed onto the sidewalk. A bright red stripe had been painted across the neck that matched the color of the two bullet holes where its chest would be, pouring blood. It gushed out, as if someone had turned on a hose, and the shadow like creature just lay on the ground bleeding, twitching, and mumbling.

"My son...my son...my son." It was soft and gentle like a sorrowful mother's lament, and to Nabiki's ears, as horrid as an unearthed grave. She shook her head violently at the ideas bubbling up in it; comparing this thing bleeding from the neck and stomach to someone back in Nerima.

Cautiously and fearfully, she walked up to the murmuring thing and slammed her foot into the thing. Another scream was emitted from the creature, accompanied by a spurt of blood that stained her shirt and jeans with specks of red. With the blow, the thing's writhing, agonizing whispers, and mind-rending murmurs all mercifully stopped.

Nabiki collapsed to her knees on the street, heaving as if exhausted and nearly sobbing. 'If I get out of this place alive I swear I am getting this town torn town, the lake filled, the woods burned to the ground, the earth salted, and this damn basin in the mountain range filled with concrete!'

She slowly got to her feet and prepared to continue on her long, overly complex, trip back to East South Vale. 'And then for good measure, I will personally drop the bombs on the filled in hole.' Her hands went to her neck where the bleeding shadowy murmuring thing had grabbed her. There was a small cut on her right side, that thing's 'hands' were sharp apparently. Again she was assaulted by familiar memories as she realized that the creature had been trying to cut her head off. Again she shook her head fiercely to keep her mind in the present.

When Nabiki attempted to jump the barricade again she was assaulted by the whispers again. Not wanting to meet anything else, she turned away from the wall and proceeded on the 'convenient' route. The message the town was sending her was loud and clear _You are going to play MY game Nabiki Tendo, and if you don't I will make you pay dearly._

"Akane, Ranma, you two are going to pay for my therapy bills, medical bills, and a hell of a lot of emotional duress." She mumbled to herself as she finally walked onto Lindsey after encountering, and thankfully avoiding another one of those bleeding murmuring things. It was becoming easier and easier to avoid these things now that she knew the sounds, and what the whispers meant. What the Hell these things were, why they were here, and why she was hearing these whispers and emotion rushes were all very good questions. Of course the only question on Nabiki's mind that she wanted to be answered promptly was:

"Where is this damn toy store?"

She walked back up Lindsey, after her first unsuccessful journey down it. Eventually, she found it underneath a cheerful green and white striped awning and a few doors down from the corner across from the florist's, rather than across from it as Mercy had said. Underneath the awning there was a pleasant display in the window of a rather impressive, if nonworking, model train countryside. The door had a very happy looking Robbie the Rabbit smiling at her, holding a sign with the word 'open' on it.

Nabiki opened the door, prompting the cheerful chime of the sensor inside the doorframe. She paused and looked at the other side of the door where she saw the other side of the rabbit was sleeping with the word closed written on the side of his overalls. Nabiki shook her head; she really did not like that rabbit, and found it unnaturally disturbing. Turning into the darkened bowels of Maxine's livelihood, Nabiki attempted the light switch, and was completely unsurprised to find it not functional in the slightest. She sighed to herself, and continued on.

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The girl in the bloody bridal veil smiled, as she exited the bridal shop with a bouquet of white flowers, as she watched Nabiki enter the toy store.

There are many different smiles in the world. The simple everyday smile where the corners of the mouth turn up slightly in a subdued fashion, the expression carried more by the cheeks and eyes. The smile of the extremely happy can actually be seen from their mouths, as their faces take on a radiant glow. The smile of malice takes on a coldness to it, making it a parody of contentment.

There are many different degrees of smiling, each having their own special trait and nuance. However there is only one version of the smile of malice that is so large and wide that it caused the skin in the corners of the mouth to slightly crack, allowing a small amount of blood to seep from the slight wound. It's only a few drops but the effect is rather impressive, morbid, and sinister; a smile framed in blood.

There is only one kind of emotion that causes this bleeding smile, only one that creates the bloody smile...

It was the emotion that came from dark vindication, invoking the 'Smile of Revenge.'

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Author's Notes: As always reviews/flames/death threats are all welcome. Once again a big thank you to WFROSE for helping me with this. And yes there is no Maxine's Toys in the game but there IS a shop in East South Vale on Lindsey with a green and white awning.


	4. Smothering Rug & Dolls

Grace and Silver

Chapter 4

Smothering Rug and Dolls

Disclaimer: Konami owns Silent Hill. Takahashi owns the Nerima Wrecking Co. This is just for fun, please don't sue.

Nabiki was never one for toy stores. Not anymore anyways, when she was little she would play with Princess Day dolls, have tea parties, and do all the other things that a young child influenced by Western media would do. That however ended when her mother died. Dolls and stuffed animals became photographs and a black debt book, as responsibilities mandated that toys be left behind with her childhood.

Regardless of her lost childhood, Nabiki felt a whistful joy being in Maxine's Toys, savoring the pleasant memories that it brought up. Sadly, this happily nostalgic feeling was dramatically cast out from the tribe Nabiki's psyche by the alliance of fear, paranoia, and anger.

It was far too dark too see far into the shop, making Nabiki yearn for a flashlight. It was a stupid mistake, not having her even a small one with her; of course one could forgive such a blunder. After all, she had just left the rotting remains of her town to investigate a letter that by all rights should not exist. Also, a traveler doesn't expect to be experiencing snow in the middle of summer, even in such a temperate climate. So the error of forgetting to bring a flashlight, or a rather large sword, gun, or any weapon that would be effective against legions from hell, could be forgiven.

Pausing for a moment, she opened her duffel and took out her spare shirt. Having slightly preferred function before fashion, it allowed her to not feel bad about ripping it into strips. Besides, it was a cheap shirt anyway. She used a few of the pieces of cloth as a makeshift bandage around her neck to protect the cut. True she could use the first aid kit, but she much rather save it for something crucial like a broken arm, a deep cut or something decidedly life threatening.

On second thought maybe it would be best if she didn't need to use it at all.

Although the building itself was of a modest size, Miss Maxine compensated by building in both directions vertically. Thanks to the small amount of outside light coming in through the window she could read the placard attached to a support beam that provided a map of the store. Grabbing some paper and a pen from the stationary display next to the front counter she copied it down. If she found any other human here, she would make sure to pay them for the supplies.

She studied the map thoroughly; even with it on her she thought it best to note the layout. The store was divided into four floors, the one she was on where general toys, Board Games, and other family friendly items were located. One floor above her was where the video game systems, computer games, sports equipment, and other loud noisy toys for the elder demographic were placed. The floor right below her was devoted to the Palmer Doll Series. The bottom most floor was a Puppet Show Theater.

Deciding to start at the top and work her way down, Nabiki ascended the spiral staircase into the upper recesses of the store. It was apparently the latest addition to the store, as the displays weren't put together with the same level of creativity and care the rest of the store possessed. Video games displayed vertically along the walls, stacks of empty console boxes, and the purchased display for some fantasy game that apparently included a rather buxom woman in a chain mail bikini. Nabiki had to smirk at the meager selection of anime and manga in one corner, and at the Asian characters that Maxine had laboriously painted on the display sign being Chinese characters that probably didn't make any sense, not Japanese kana. "Only in America," Nabiki murmured, recalling a phrase she had heard in movies.

The other side of the floor was for the child that was more inclined to the outdoors, rather than sitting in the dark playing the latest Biohaz…pardon, Resident Evil. Punching bags, baseball gloves, American football shoulder pads, and the like were all displayed upon the walls. There didn't really seem to be much here of interest, and the door to the supply closet wasn't opening; the lock apparently jammed.  
Thankfully, this was not a total waste, as she managed to locate a light. She attached the little clip-on flashlight she attached to her shirt that was in a little box along with several other promotional items for the amusement park apparently; presumed by the drawing of Robbie the Rabbit in all his purple glory on the white battery case. Nabiki added the cost of the flashlight to her tab, along with adding the damn rabbit to the 'Reasons to Never Ever See this Town Ever Again' list. It was already up to four pages.

_HesanoldfooltakingeverythingnowonderHeslikethat_

"Crap! Something's here!" Nabiki moved to the middle of the room and scanned the room slowly. No shadow thing slipping across the wall, waiting for a chance to decapitate her. No water filled flesh lumps sloshing to her so it could boil or freeze her to death. Knowing that, and if the warning whisper was different then that meant: "A new mon-AAAAGH!!" She screamed as the floor under her feet writhed and jolted, startling her and making her lose her footing and, as if it wasn't enough, causing her to drop her gun and have it skitter across the floor just a few inches and a thousand miles out of her reach. This was unfortunate as at the moment Nabiki could have REALLY used that gun, as she was under attack from a new monstrosity.

It was a living rug, that's why it had been able to surprise her; unwittingly walking on top of the faux black and white fur rug. It had pulled itself out from under Nabiki's feet to fell her, like a magician failing to keep all the dishes on the table after pulling out the tablecloth. Lying on the floor dazed and confused, the crawling rug slid over her chest and face. The underside of the rug felt like human skin; if Nabiki could open her eyes, she would see the bulging veins crisscrossing all over the surface. Right now she was more concerned about breathing, rather than how the thing currently attempting to kill her looked.

She reached out her hand, trying to get a hold of something, anything, that she could use to get this thing off of her. Her hand closed around something that felt cold and metallic, just as her ribs were starting to hurt from being contracted, and her head was beginning to spin from the air loss.

Having something in her hand she came up with a plan; a stupid, oxygen-deprived, panicked, last minute desperation, plan. She raised the object, and brought it down as hard as she could onto her head. The theory was that it would distract the thing long enough so she, barring a concussion or a blade or spike that went through the thing into her own skull, could pull it off, grab the gun, and send it back to the carpet store from hell. Of course, her plans have had a track record to not work anywhere near to what she wanted.

This time, it went SO much better than expected.

The minute the thing hit the creature it released itself and went limp, allowing Nabiki to roll herself out from under the creature, and got up. It was writhing on the floor in pain and agony, a large red welt spreading from the 'head' of the rug where she had hit it. A hard stomp with her shoe and the rug's suffering was put to an abrupt halt. She gently touched her head, surprised to note that she was fine, discounting the gasps as her lungs grabbed back all the air she had used up fighting that thing, and the lump Mercy had given her head.

It was about damn time she had a little luck. Her attention went to the object that had saved her life, finding an aluminum baseball bat in hand; one that had apparently fallen from their display. Nabiki narrowed her eyes, realizing two odd things. Firstly, it had been taken out of the plastic case that held a complimentary baseball, and secondly someone had taken one of those scented markers, a red one that smelled of cherry and drew something on the tip of the bat, a design of a circle in a circle with a triangle within that

Nabiki decided to concern herself with the mystery at a more opportune time, picked up her gun, and descended two stories down into the home of the signature Palmer Dolls.

There were no whispers on the doll floor, causing Nabiki breath a deep sigh of relief. The Palmer series was divided by five rows of shelves; the first held stuffed animals, all hand sewn and made with care. Soft and cuddly bears and tigers stared back at her, a reflective sheen on it from the plastic wrapping that covered every one. Apparently, Palmer didn't mind the ecological ramifications of her judicious use of plastic.

The next shelf held dioramas of religious events; Moses parting the Red Sea, a pastoral Garden of Eden, and other scenes. Nabiki was never one to look deep into spiritual matters, understanding that discussing religion was one of the big no-nos of the successful businesswoman. However, in this horrid town, she was able to draw a small comfort from them. Nabiki smiled as she looked at the Noah's Ark set, along with the rag doll humans and wooden ark, were ten pairs of very cute plush animals. Each pair wrapped individually in plastic. A look to the shelf below revealed more smiling creatures to complete the set.

A shelf of dolls in cultural dress was in the next row. Again, each doll individually wrapped in a protective layer of plastic. Having all those black eyes staring at her made Nabiki a little uneasy, but at this point she was savoring uneasy with a delectable overtone of paranoia. The Japanese dolls, white-faced geishas, were very nice but Palmer apparently didn't do enough research. A cold shiver up her spine occurred when she registered that the kimonos were all cut the opposite way, that style was only used for burial dresses

The next aisle was dollhouses of all shapes and sizes. A Victorian ballroom, a spooky gothic castle, and another more friendly fairy tale castle, and a rather whimsical construction that looked like the brainchild of Frank Lloyd Wright. Next up were the exotic locales; a respectful, if stereotypical, depiction of an African hut, Chinese temple, Native American teepee, Eskimo igloo, and a Japanese dwelling.

The last aisle brought that fairly pleasant feeling Nabiki had been building up crumbling back down into the oh-so familiar realm of fear and uncertainty. It was a depiction of Hell. Divided into seven sections, one for each of the deadly sins, it depicted the eternal punishment that the vile sinner would suffer for all eternity. As she quickly walked through the aisle something felt wrong. Not the same feeling when the monsters were attacking her or staring down into the giant crevasses on Nathan Avenue. Something just felt…off.

In the far corner of the room was a closed door. The sign above, lit by a dim fluorescent light, advertised the fantastic, amazing, entertaining Marionette Show below. However the door was firmly locked, and refused to budge. On the door was a new odd design, a circle within a circle, and inside the inner circle where three smaller circles arranged in a triangle. There were also many runes and odd designs placed all around it. The blue paint that made it up still reeked of paint fumes. It looked like it was made with spray paint, so if it was dry but still smelled then that meant that it had been applied not too long ago. "Creepy, who could of put this here," Nabiki wondered out loud.

'I don't think those creatures could hold a spray can, let alone know how to use it to make such a complex design. Lets see, the only person I've seen so far has been Mercy, I don't think she did this, but I don't know if she was lying or not. Although she did say she saw someone in a tux around here.' As the pain in her side flared up again she recalled one more person. 'That girl in the bridal veil.' She nodded, the last option seemed likely, as this symbol didn't seem friendly and whoever that girl was, she was NOT her friend.

Below the blue symbol there was a message carved into the door. It definitely was a message for Nabiki as it was written in Hiragana.

'_When the audience of Sin is assembled, the show will begin.'_

Nabiki stared at the words for a while, sucking on her lower lip, and trying to decipher the meaning of the message. After a few minutes she returned to the Hell aisle, for a better examination, and had her answer in a few seconds; there were no dolls in the sin sections. Yes, there were dolls of devils and faceless rag dolls writhing in pain, but no sinners being tormented. The next question was where the said sinners were. This answer came much quicker.

A trip to the dollhouse aisle next, she stopped in front of the Japanese house which was obviously her next location. The first clue was that it didn't possess that plastic sheath everything else here had, while the second was that it was a recreation of Nabiki's home. Opening the door revealed, just as she fearfully expected, seven figurines within. Grabbing all of them Nabiki returned to the Hell aisle, and set the dolls down so she could figure out what went where.

The first one was a small wooden doll that looked more like a malformed mushroom than a human. The eyes were bugged out and overly large, the legs and arms way too small, it looked like a failed experiment in shop class. It was as far from human as anything could be, Nabiki recognized him immediately. The wooden troll went in the Lust section.

The next one was a melting panda doll. Only this one had been overstuffed to the point of bursting. This one was also, not hard to identify and place. The panda was placed in the hell for Gluttons.

Next up was a rag doll that looked like a dog chewed on it a few times. The stitching was stretched and warped and in some places the stitching had had been pulled out revealing the stuffing inside the doll to be an assortment of coins. The dress that was painted on the poor torn doll was a deep green. If the coin weren't enough then her own battle-scarred status determined its identity. Smiling, and with a kiss for good luck, Nabiki proudly placed the rag doll in Greed.

After that came a samurai figure in full armor. The armor however was covered in rust, and the face of the warrior was warped like a demon, or as if it had been underwater for an extended period of time. Again this one was easy to decide who it represented. "You aren't gluttony…maybe pride? No, ah rusted armor, that must be it." The noble warrior was doomed to Hell for the sin of Sloth.

The next two Nabiki identified immediately. One was a kung-fu action figure, and the other a Princess Doll with a smashed face. The fact that they were dressed in a tux and a wedding dress also helped Nabiki solve the mystery as to who these two possibly could be. Now the hard part, where in Hell would these two burn for all eternity? "Envy? No, no, so it's Wrath and Pride, or Pride and Wrath. Well I guess it would be more accur-" She stopped dead, silently cursing herself for talking to herself again. Taking a deep breath and regaining her thoughts, she damned the Kung-fu Groom to Pride, and the Smashed Bride to Wrath.

With only one sin and one doll left the last position was rather easy. She didn't even think about it, as she placed a headless doll in an apron in Envy. Her eyes were focused on the door. As soon as the last doll received its infernal judgment, a loud CLICK echoed through the store. Nabiki, no stranger to the basics of breaking, entering, and espionage, recognized it as the sound of a lock sliding back.

The door opened easily now, displaying a long carpeted staircase leading downwards. Now Nabiki Tendou is not as dense as most Nerima residents. Every synapse in her brain demanded that she NOT go down those stairs; even the blind could see the trap coming, and any person with a lick of sense would turn around right now and leave. Nabiki took a deep breath and proceeded down the stairs.

She reached the bottom of the stairs without incident, and entered into the puppet theater. It appeared to be a rather large room, thanks to a trick using a slanted roof, as the staged seemed to be much further away and larger than it was. The rug was soft and thick, forming a five-foot wide border of green carpet that lined the edge of the room. The middle of the carpet was a dark red, and went all the way up to the stage curtain on the far wall. Presumably, the prepubescent audience would sit around the room on the green section, while the puppeteers would come out from the stage onto the red carpet, and allow children to see the puppets up close. The stage was unremarkable; a five-foot high backdrop surrounded in a simple wood carved border, guarded by a limp, thick, dark blue curtain.

There were no whispers, no feelings of unease, nothing. This was just a room apparently. Nabiki walked up to the curtain, and carefully used the baseball bat to part it so she could see what was within. A cute, pastel backdrop that looked as if it came from either 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' or 'Babes In Toyland', and a glance to each side revealed the entrances to the backstage.

Nabiki cautiously went deeper into the world of strings, her baseball bat held ready. Again, her caution appeared to be unwarranted, as there was nothing there. A few empty boxes that may have once held puppets were littered around, but she didn't see any occupied boxes; they must have been valuable enough to be taken home, or locked up each night. Along the back wall there was a soundboard and lighting controls for the stage, all of them non-functional. Then some good luck, a security station with monitors for the cameras in store. They weren't working but that wasn't what was important, what was important was the blinking red button that had a label Nabiki was able to translate, 'Emergency Power'.

As soon as she hit the button, a set of soft fluorescent lights lit up the backstage and the security cameras came to life. Nabiki took a quick look at all of the monitors, then stopped suddenly and stared at the one monitoring the front door.

The Girl in the Bloody Bridal Veil was there, and she was looking directly at the camera. Nabiki stood frozen as she saw the girl place a white paper bag on the floor and walk out of view of the camera. Nabiki was really starting to hate that girl, who was she? Why was she stalking her? Why was she wearing that veil? Whoever she was, she had obviously left that bag, and whatever was in it, for Nabiki.

Exiting the backstage of the theater she started to head for the stairs when she saw something in the middle of the floor. It was a cover to a book, from the pictures of unicorns and fairies on the front she assumed it was a children's fantasy tale. When she picked it up to look she noticed that apart from the few beginning pages someone had torn the pages out of the book. That was bad, this book was Important. She had no idea how she knew this but she just knew, before she had realized it she had started to read the story aloud.

"There once was a little town 

_Happy and so full of life and love_

_Then one day The Mother left the town_

_And everyone was very sad_

_But the people tried to be happy,_

_because they knew The Mother would want that_

_But they weren't REALLY happy_

_Chaos came to the little town, drawn by the lies and sadness_

_And now God is very sad._

_Because all the people there are full of Sin._

_Oki no doku desu_.__

"'Pity the Town'," Nabiki read; the final line of the story written in a nearly archaic version of her native language. As soon as she said the last part of the story, the sound of a siren pierced the air. It kept on getting louder and louder, forcing Nabiki to clamp her hands over her ears, but it only seemed to make the sound worse. It was piercing into her brain, and digging into her skull like a maggot through a dead carcass. She dropped to her knees and laid on the floor sobbing as the sound burned through her entire body. She would have felt elation, when she thankfully passed out from the pain.

She awoke a few moments later. She jumped up and checked herself over. Other than her current wounds, she appeared to be fine. She turned to the stairs to get out of the theater, and realized that something was VERY wrong.

A mass of wheelchairs blocked the stairs, looking as if they had been tossed down the stairs one after another it would be impossible to climb over those without severely injuring herself. The walls were Wrong, they were no longer the flat black walls, but rusted pieces of sheet metal bolted together haphazardly, and in the gaps she saw something behind the wall…twitching. The carpet was gone, replaced now by a steel metal grate above a black abyss. The Puppet Stage was now a towering monstrosity as the optical illusion had now been reversed. The curtain had been replaced by a sheet of white lace and chiffon, the same material in a wedding dress, spattered with blood and she didn't what to know what. The frame for the theater was truly disturbing, it looked like someone had stitched together countless hands, arms, legs, and feet into a hideous barrier.

She wasn't alone. Something was moving behind the curtain. Something that was large and decidedly not human.

Ihatethemwhycanttheyleavemealone 

The whispers were back and getting louder.

WhycantkilltheyjustkillgobackkilltoChina 

The curtain was starting to part, and the sound of the thing's movement was getting closer, and Nabiki could make out some…thing, coming closer and closer.

_KillThemStupidBimboKillThemBlindFoolKillThenOldhagKillThem_

She checked her gun to see if it was fully loaded, and tightened her grip on the baseball bat. A smell of burning flesh reached her nose almost making her gag.

HatethemKillThemHatethemKillthem 

A sound grew louder and louder, like a trash disposal someone had jammed a fork into. Nabiki slid her feet into a ready position. Out of the corner of her eye she could see someone sitting on the steps.

KILLTHEMKILLTHEMKILLTHEM 

As the thing came into view, the Girl in the Bloody Bridal Veil smiled as the puppet show began. She was very impressed with the production, the puppets were so lifelike and real. One wonderful piece from China and one fantastic puppet directly from Japan.

This was going to be a wonderful show.

Author's Notes: Points to anyone who sees the Twin Peaks reference. Again thanks to WFROSE for proofing this and a special thanks to Rin for the translation assistance.


	5. Devouring Puppet

Grace & Silver

Chapter 5

Devouring Puppet

Disclaimer: Takahashi owns Ranma and Co. Konami owns Silent Hill. This is just for fun, please don't sue.

Warning: Things are going to be disturbing now…actually make that MORE disturbing. But don't worry, nothing too graphic.

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"I now pronounce you man and wife." Tofu announced to the dojo, Nerima, and the world.

Then Akane kissed Ranma pouring as much emotion into the act as she could. The bride turned to Dr. Tofu, reaching out to him with both her arms. His cheerful, joyous smile never fell, as Akane swiftly snapped his neck.

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Mousse felt honored to be Ranma's best man…well the second best man but that was just a minor detail. For the most part, he was happy; not because these two were getting married, but because this was the best, and upon past recollection, the only way to make Ranma unavailable to Shampoo.

True, a few disturbing images appeared in his mind to what Shampoo or that Old Hag's reaction may be, but that was ridiculous; they weren't THAT obsessed. Best of all though, this finally meant that he was one, huge, crucial, step closer to being with his darling Shampoo.

Shampoo almost screamed in bloody murder and launched herself at the violent girl's throat. However, the Mercenary Girl was NOT one to trifle with. And, she absolutely hated to admit it, but seeing Ranma and the Vio-Akane there together felt…proper. She also would never admit this as well, but Mousse wasn't too shabby looking standing there in his formal robes. Maybe, just maybe, she would think about perhaps considering to possibly giving him a little match, if she felt like it, just to see how much stronger he had become.

Cologne was never one to accept defeat easily. There was always a back up plan, a contingency, or at the very least a stall tactic to buy her time to think up of something. This time, however, she knew that she was beaten. Nabiki Tendou was always someone Cologne did not want to trifle with, and this was why.

By the time she would be able to protect her village and family from the retribution of the middle Tendou, Ranma and Akane's marriage would, by Amazon law, be untouchable. However, there were always alternate routes to every situation. A mistress, multiple wives, a temporary mind-switching potion, the list went on and on. Alas, seeing those two together cemented the fact that they were in love, and that was the one force that she couldn't stop. Thinking about it, Mousse HAD time and again protected Shampoo from harm, and he HAD been getting stronger; at the very least he would wear his glasses more often. Maybe there was hope for the future yet. Cologne was suddenly jolted from her musings, and paled, as the resounding 'crack' of overtaxed vertebrae sounded deafeningly loud in her ears. .

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Nabiki shielded her eyes, as the frame of limbs burst into flames, and the curtain parted.. She just stood there staring in abject horror, dropping her forgotten arm from covering her face. Her mouth hung slack, as the smell of burning flesh got stronger, torturing her sense of smell with a sample of Hell. Her shock was interrupted by the involuntary spasms of her stomach, and wretched the remains of the 'food' she was served on the airplane; splattering onto the blood rusted grating, and dripped down into a dark nothingness beyond it.

Calling it a freak was a great understatement, a monstrosity would be insufficient. Proclaiming it an abomination was as close as Mars to the Earth. There was no real word or phrase of any language that could come close to describing the thing that Nabiki was looking at. Wrongness. It just couldn't exist, it was the very aberration to nature and reality.

Ten feet tall, yet seemed infinitely larger with the inverted size illusion from the warped room. The top half was a faceless mannequin; dancing and bobbing with its hands outstretched. Its fingerless hands held strings, no…long straps of flesh. As it wobbled closer to the burning frame, the flames illuminated top half enough to reveal the downy, gritty, gossamer sheen of soiled white feathers.

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There are certain times in people's lives that are just so 'off' that the mind needs to take a rather long pause to understand what just happened. As Dr. Tofu fell to the floor the entire audience experienced such a pause. The soft thump of Nabiki following suit went unnoticed.

Ranma turned to Mousse, and smiled at him. A long silent pause hung in the air.

"Ranma…what's going on?" Mousse asked dumbfounded.

Ranma replied by stepping on Mousse's left foot, gently holding it to the ground. With his free leg, the recently married man delivered a kick to Mousse's left knee. The crack was audible even outside the dojo, as the Chinese Male's leg bent the wrong way. Far from finished, Ranma reached down, and grabbed above and below Mousse's right knee. Ranma then twisted his hands and pushed them together. Mousse collapsed to the ground. Overloaded, his pain receptors sent him into a merciful catatonia. He just sat there on the floor, gingerly touching the white protrusion from his right knee that had stringy red clumps clinging to it. A soft whimper escaped his lips.

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Yet another mannequin held up the top, this one was covered in light purple fur. Its feet gingerly touched the grated floor, always on its toes like a ballerina or a fleet footed warrior. The long straps of flesh that hung from the feathered figure were attached to the arms of the furred dummy. The straps of carrion were far too slack, and the excess material dragged limply on the ground.

Its head was thrown back, with its mouth opened in a silent, skyward roar. It's mouth was the only visible, discernable feature; perfectly circular, and ingesting the feathered mannequin's legs. The mouth wasn't just a carved indentation into a wooden clothes model. It was like a pit of whirling blades; jammed from their grinding purpose like a thick bone in a garbage disposal.

Nabiki winced at the noise as the legs of the upper creature were mangled by the gnawing and gashing mouth; the noise like a mangling car wreck in slow motion, as the body within was wetly torn apart by the intruding metal shards.

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Shampoo stood up, her head tilted to the side and a soft and confused 'ah' sound escaped her lips. Still the majority of the guests were sitting there dumbfounded desperately trying to figure out what on Earth was happening.

She took a few steps closer to the altar to the two standing there. They were still smiling at each other as if they were utterly unaware of what they had done.

"Ranma…why break Mousse's legs?" She asked the two.

Akane quietly approached her, a wide contented smile on her face. She put her hands under Shampoo's armpits, as if seeking a to pull her into a sisterly embrace, and gripped hard. Shampoo tried to break free but she couldn't get herself to move in time. Akane pulled out, up, and down sharply and quickly. The people in the back of the dojo clearly heard the meaty, tearing sound of ripping tendons and muscle. The sight of Shampoo's arms lying limply to her sides was distracted from by her undismissable scream of pain.

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The arms on the lower mannequin were not covered in purple fur, but more seemed as if made of poorly crafted, pale leather, possibly even wood, if the skin on the limbs weren't writhing. At the end of each arm was a large round lump with multiple clumps of thin, white threads.

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Cologne had enough life's experience to overrule her shock, and quickly assess the situation. Akane and Ranma had obviously gone insane, killed one person, and mutilated two. At the moment, their attention was turned on her in a heated battle. Cologne found herself at a disadvantage; as the couple fought her at a speed she was unable to keep up with. Very odd, as they weren't moving any faster than she knew of them, but she just couldn't block in time to prevent their assaults on her pressure points.

The rest of the audience still seemed to be in a shocked state, even beyond Mousse's whimpering or Shampoo's scream; something like this would have caused some kind of a reaction by now.

Realization hit her at about the same time Akane hit the final pressure point. The conclusion she had reached was almost correct on what was happening. Another second and a full picture of what was going on would have opened up to her and she would be able to stop this from going any further. Sadly before that could happen her right lung, as a result of the pressure point attack, collapsed within itself, and two of her ribs on her left side cracked; one fully breaking. Instead of preventing Akane and Ranma's escape among the panicking guests she was left on the floor gasping for air.

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The top half of the creature gestured with its arms. A few seconds ticked by with no event, then suddenly…

SWISS-SACK

The three fleshy threads that connected to the left appendage sprang to life, and attached their midsection to the wall directly above and behind Nabiki. She froze, confused for a moment, until she realized what was about to happen. She leaped to the side quickly, just avoiding by inches as the attached threads were used pull the body into the wall at sledgehammer force.

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"Hello? Is anyone here? The sign was up."

Daisuke entered the Nekohanten. Things had calmed down after the events at the wedding yesterday. The police had come, and everyone was at least making a vain attempt to get back to normal. Even if it were a bit peculiar, he supposed it was good that the Chinese Trio was back to doing business. As he stepped inside, not a soul was present in the fore. Puzzled, he gained a small amount of valiance, and ventured into the kitchen.

"Shampoo? Mousse? Elder Cologne?" He walked around the restaurant interior cautious and a little uneasy. It had been set up for customers, yet it lacked a single person other than himself.

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Nabiki gasped for breath, while glaring at the fleshy limb lying there as if it was momentarily stunned by the impact. Suddenly, the white threads clinging to it writhed violently as if jolted by lightning. Nabiki quickly attempted to dart back, but was not quick enough. Like a whip, the threads lashed out, and bit into her in the shoulder. Nabiki managed to get clear from the threads doing any more damage but she did feel warmth and wetness seeping into her shirt from the shoulder that was hit.

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A dull buzz rang out through the dining establishment. When it seemed apparent no one was responding to it, Daisuke went into the kitchen to investigate, finding the low yet demanding sound emanating from a stove timer. Ever so helpful, the young man checked the stove, finding a large boiling pot inside. It smelled alright, a little on the burnt side maybe. Although how something could be burned from boiling was beyond him. Daisuke shrugged, he wasn't a cook so it probably could happen, he supposed.

"Hello? Is anyone here? I think this is done." More silence. Daisuke turned off the burner, as a little curiosity jumped up in his mind. He grabbed a potholder and lifted the lid, finding the sight of a mass of white, stringy, rice noodles greeting him.

He jumped at the sound of someone clearing their throat, "Oh I'm sorry," he turned around, after replacing the lid, "I was just cur-"

He stopped dead at the sight before him.

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The fleshy strings went limp, as the appendage was slowly dragged back to the main body. Seeing the opportunity, Nabiki raised her gun and fired two shots at the mannequin in the purple fur. The bullets found their mark in the chest area. She frowned, stepping back, realizing the shots had no effect whatsoever.

Changing targets to the feathered half, she fired three times with a shaky aim. Two went wild, and hit the wall with a sharp ping that contrasted with the creature's maddening sounds. The third was hit the thing dead center in its forehead, forcing the feather dummy's head to snap back from the impact; a flurry of feathers bursting from the wound. A light, relieving sensation of victory coursed through Nabiki, and just as instantly vanished, when the thing raised its head again; showing no sign of stopping or even slowing down.

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'Please God, let me live through this. Please God, let me live through this.' That was the mantra that ran through Daisuke's head, as he lifted another piece of meat with his chopsticks. He could see the feathers that were sticking to it. He felt his stomach churn again but fought to keep it from showing, as he dropped the lump of meat into her mouth.

"More."

He was too terrified to do anything else, but comply as he lifted up the next piece.

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SWISS-SACK!

The puppet's right hand strings lashed out once again to attach themselves against the wall. Nabiki quickly devised a new tactic, telling herself it seemed to work in video games. She aimed for one of the fleshy strings that were stretched tight to the wall, deciding that if this didn't work, with only four more bullets after this one in her clip, she was in serious trouble. True, she did have another box full of her nine-millimeter saviors, but to reload from a box would take far more time then she had.

She pulled the trigger, and managed to hit one of the three thick strings. She felt elation, until she realized that she managed only a minor injury, a small hole in it. Cursing her waning luck, she prepared to dodge the oncoming appendage. That's when she noticed the ripping sound. Looking back at the damaged tendril, she felt heart quicken. As the tendril went taut from trying to pull the winkled brown bonbori arm from the wall, the little bullet hole to grow as sinews tore one after another. A resounding snap went off, as the string had been severed. The listless appendage flew at Nabiki, but this time its aim was off, allowing her to jump out of the way; easily avoiding the writhing threads as well.

SWISS-SACK!

The left hand strings went taught against the wall. Nabiki, knowing what to do, took aim.

BANG BANG BANG!

The three bullets found their way into the fleshy strings, her aim had been getting much better with her growing confidence, yet still far from good enough for her opinion. Just as before, the motions of the puppet caused the strings to rip apart. The sound shrieked louder for a moment in what Nabiki savagely hoped was pain, as the furry puppet's appendage fell to the floor, limp and useless.

Nabiki realized a new problem; there were two more flesh strings left, and her gun only had one bullet left in it. Deciding upon the most prominent issue, Nabiki placed the last bullet into one of the final two strings. Unfortunately, the creature decided to change tactics; using the attached thread not as a guide wire but as a fulcrum for a wide sweep. Nabiki dove over the log shaped arm, landing on her side, digging into her duffel for the last box of precious lead. Her fingers ripped open the box at the same time the thing made another sweep. She quickly got back to her feet, and jumped it again, narrowly missing the strike. Nabiki couldn't help but remember all that time playing jump rope with her friends a long time ago.

Diving back into her bag she desperately grabbed for the bullets that had been scattered and tossed around. Her hand closed around three, and gave her just enough time to pull her hand out and make another jump.

She almost cleared this one, one of the threads lashed out at her ankle causing her to falter and skid across the grated floor. It was bad having her elbows be scraped raw, but Nabiki found it far worse to hear two sounds of her two current very dear and necessary friends falling through the holes in the floor, and down into the black abyss below.

Getting up quick, she loaded in the one bullet she had managed to keep her grip on.

SWISS-SACK!

The last flesh string attached itself to the wall, greatly intent on great harm to its prey. Nabiki refused to be its victim, took aim, did a short prayer to anyone that was listening, and fired.

The bullet flawlessly found it's mark, and the ripping sound became audible for a few moments, until the demon's horrible grinding sound became an obvious shriek of pain once more. The unmistakable hellish cry of the creature's agony was the sweetest sound in the universe to Nabiki's ears.

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The police found Daisuke hoarsely babbling and sobbing in a corner clutching a bloody knife; throat raw from the screams that attracted their attention, and covered in bite marks. The police searched the restaurant for anyone else, hoping to find the foreign residents that owned the establishment, and only found a small cat missing its front paws, brutally stabbed to death.

The officers were struck at the sight, not because of the inhumane act done to the small feline, but disturbing, surreal situation they found themselves in. Slowly recovering from their shock, they finally began to comprehend what the babbling, hysterical young man was whimpering…

"She wanted more."

It was decided that it was in self-defense, the animal had to have attacked him. After all, more and more reports of unusual animal attacks all over the ward were coming in, maybe it was a seasonal thing.

Daisuke had to be committed, showing no signs of recovery from his trauma, not speaking intelligently, and refusing to eat or drink anything. He has to be fed intravenously now and constantly sedated, every time he's awake he tries to bite his own tongue off to rid himself of the everlasting, salty-copper taste of blood that lingered in every morsel that entered his mouth….

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The monstrosity collapsed to the floor with no support; its 'strings' torn, limp, and useless, yet that horrid, deafening, grating sound still going strong. Nabiki desperately began to reload her pistol with the rest of her bullets, praying that that…that thing wasn't going to get up. The puppet with the white feathers then shifted its legs, emitting a loud sound as if a ligament had been torn, a joint popped from the socket. Like a clog in a drainage disposal being flushed down, the feather puppet slowly began to be devoured by the puppet covered in purple fur. The warped legs, the torso, the arms, even the shreds of the flesh-like strings attached to them were consumed. The head finally disappeared down the gullet of the devouring puppet, it's head thrown back as if in pain; but Nabiki knew better, on a barely conscious level, she understood. The feather puppet had its head thrown back in sheer ecstasy.

Suddenly, purple fur puppet lifted those long wrinkled brown arms it had, while the white threads writhing from the bulges at the ends of the arms had gone limp in defeat. Both of them were fed into the whirling blades of the purple fur puppet's mouth, and entire arms of the creature were consumed; torn from their joints like chicken drumsticks. Nabiki involuntarily took a step back at the horrid, cracking sound the puppet itself made; bending itself in half, and ate its own legs off. In a disturbing feat of flexibility and surrealness, the torso and the rest of the thing's body was consumed.

At the end, there was just the fur-covered head lying on the grated floor, the bladed hole whirring away, the awful noise replaced by a soft whir.

_Kill Her._

Nabiki walked out to the head and carefully picked it up, keeping her hands away from the blades. She threw it up in the air, then, with a swing Ichiro would have been proud of, smashed the head up and into the flaming frame of limbs with the bat she had gathered from the toy store. The scream that resulted, a high-pitched, grating, mechanical whine, was deliciously satisfying to Nabiki. She was allowed a full four seconds of enjoyment before the world became very blurry, and she decided that laying her head on the ground would be a very good idea. Her head followed her exhausted body as the last bit of stamina left her.

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A young man of Asian descent stumbled out of the woods; one hand holding a wooden plank that he had hammed nails into the top and strengthening it (he thought) by wrapping it in duct tape. In his other hand, he held a bulging duffle bag that carried an assortment of junk; talismans, holy symbols, replica ritual daggers, books with authentically aged pages and the like.

'Please let's go home! We can still turn around and leave!' A low voice said in the man's mind. 'Face it! Akane's dead, and if Nabiki is here she's good as. Please I'm begging you DON'T go any further! Please Gosunkugi!'

'Nonono!' The soft voice answered back. 'You HAVE to go in there! You KNOW she's alive! After all, you know what to avoid, you have all of your special defenses and artifacts. Nothing can go wrong! You're Nerima's occult expert! This is your home turf; you're in your element! Go for it! Find her, FIND her!'

"SHUT UP SHUT UP!" Hikaru Gosunkugi placed his hands over his ears and continued into the misty hamlet.

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When she awoke, the world had once again returned to normal, that is as normal as this hell apparently got. The puppet theater had resumed it's pleasant, if dormant, appearance, and the bloody and rusty grate floor was replaced by carpeting.

Nabiki, always a calm and shrewd planner, executed the 'get the hell out of this place' plan very efficiently. She leapt up the stairs, out from the puppet pit, past Palmer's claim to fame, and then she paused momentarily to pick up the white bag the girl in the bloody bridal veil left.

Cautiously she put her hand into the bag, and pulled her hand out instantly when she touched something wet. , Nabiki looked at her hand, and found her fingers smeared with blood, but thankfully not her own. Dumping out the contents of the bag revealed the source of blood; a spherical lump of freshly used wrappings, bandages, and band-aids. Through the bloodstains, she made out on one of the wrappings 'PROPERTY OF SILENT HILL MEDICAL CENTER'.

Just like the bowling ball led her to the toy store the girl in the bloody bridal veil was leading her to the Medical Center. As she rummaged around in her duffel for her map, she took a glance at what Mr. Burlew had to say about the medical center…

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_ This is the advice I have for any medical facility anywhere in Silent Hill, ESPECIALLY for the two hospitals. I have heard the EXACT SAME STORY from EVERYONE who got out of those death traps; stories of demons, horrors, and other nightmarish images are only the beginning of the tales. So, taking that into account, my advice is as follows:_

DO NOT GO INTO ANY MEDICAL BUILDING. EVER.

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"That was comforting." Nabiki said nonplussed. The map at least offered some shred of good news; if the streets were the same when she had came into the toy store, it was then just a quick run up the road. With luck, that would hopefully limit the chances of running into anything else on the streets. To call the fact that she would only have to walk a little ways before she reached what was most likely another place of evil, madness, and death, 'good news' really spoke volumes about her situation.

She exited Maxine's Toys, and found that the streets were still vaguely familiar and hadn't developed more giant crevasses, giant plastic walls, or any other obstacles. However, there was one major difference between now and what felt like ages ago. How long HAD she been in this town? Her watch only said two hours but that couldn't be right. The sun was gone; in fact all light from the sky had disappeared, with the only source of illumination was her Robbie the Rabbit clip on flashlight. It was as if something had just erased everything out of the sky.

Carefully, she started to almost listlessly walk up the road to her next destination; she felt so tired. Here she was, hundreds of miles away from her home, bruised and bloodied, with demons and a psychotic woman following her every move. The only human she found was an indifferent, impolite, and downright obnoxious American girl.

As the snow fell quietly to the ground, Nabiki couldn't help but feel alone and scared. She caught her reflection in a window, bandages covering her body, her clothes stained with blood, and a death grip on her baseball bat and gun. Her eyes were terrifying; they had always been cold and calculating, but now they had paranoia and desperation added to it. They were the eyes of a woman on the verge of madness, far from the playful, joking, madness of Nerima or the disturbing, but ultimately harmless delusions of the Kunos. No this was the type that locked people away in rubber rooms. Nabiki was one of the sharpest minds in Nerima and she came to a very easy conclusion.

Silent Hill was trying to drive her mad, and so far it was doing a damn good job of it.

Author's Notes: The medical center is an actual place in the games. Once more, reviews, comments, outraged cries for my head/what I'm smoking are all appreciated. As always a large amount of thanks is due to WFROSE for proofing these chapters.


	6. Second Mercy & Second Arrival

Grace & Silver

Chapter 6

Second Mercy & Second Arrival

Disclaimer: Konami owns Silent Hill, Rumiko Takahashi owns the Nerima Cast, this is just for fun please don't sue.

Author's notes: For the person emailing me (and anyone else for that matter) please feel free to draw anything you want from G&S. Just make sure you send me a link.

Anything inspoken in _Italics _is in English. Everything else is in Japanese.

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Nabiki carefully treaded down the middle of the wide street. Ironically, this was the safest place for her to be; far away from the walls, where those shadow things were and enough room to maneuver around any rug or water balloon monsters. However, if a car came barreling out at the darkness at her…it was best she not think about that possibility.

She had gone one block down the road, when the sound of gunfire shattered the ethereal hiss of the wind. She dropped to the ground immediately, and frantically tried to look around in the darkness where it was coming from.

_"GET BACK! GET BACK!!"_

A woman's nearly hysterical voice screamed, and another shot was fired. Nabiki quickly recognized the voice, and got up and rushed to where the sounds were coming from while taking out her own gun.

"That was that American girl Mercy again," Nabiki muttered to herself, "She must have finished her search in Brookhaven Hospital." Nabiki found the woman locked in a hopeless conflict with two of those human water balloons and a shadow creature. Even now that Nabiki was there, she hesitated at the odds of both of them stopping all three nightmares.

_LOVEFEARdonttrustHONORPITYlikemeLOVEFEAR_

There were the whispers and emotions again. Nabiki was getting good at recognizing what went with what. Nabiki focused past the tormenting whispers running through her mind, and drew her aim. Her shot hit one of the disturbingly shifting monsters in the shoulder, causing it to reel. Mercy only turned to Nabiki long enough to register her savior, before turned back, and finished it with a heavy blow to the head with her pipe.

Nabiki ran up, and swung her bat at the second one's head. Unlike her hands or feet, the bat met something very solid, and the impact twisted the demon's head 180-degrees with the telling sound of vertibre snapped out of alignment. Mercy had developed a great deal more confidence at Nabiki's arrival, and finished emptying the bullets in her pistol into the shadow thing. The creatures fell to the ground twitching

Even after critically wounding them, Nabiki and Mercy savagely beat down the trio of creatures, not stopping until the things were bloody piles on the ground. In the silence that ensued, broken only by the sound of their erratic breathing, the two women finally acknowledged each other's presence.

_"Thank you. You saved my life,"_ Mercy extending her hand in gratitude, yet Nabiki swore the other woman's face was a little puzzled, as she was trying to remember if she had met this person before.

_"You are welcome. You are Mercy, correct? We did meet at once in Heaven's Night."_ Nabiki shook the blond woman's hand, noting that Mercy had also accumulated a rather large collection of bandages as well. That feeling of aggravation this woman gave her started to creep into her mind again.

_"Oh yes! Um..."_ Mercy snapped her fingers in attempted recognition of Nabiki's name. _"Mikki,_ _right?"_

"Nabiki." The Japanese woman corrected in the best dry tone she could muster in her moderate level English. Yes, Nabiki definitely didn't like this girl.

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Gosunkugi leaned against the tunnel wall out of breath, lamenting how long of a hike this road was into town. Maybe he should have come in from Brahms instead of Ashfield; the road was a lot shorter there, and easier to travel after all. However, that would but him on the wrong side of the lake to where Nabiki was. Not that he cared where that scheming mercenary went; if she wanted to die here, then that was fine by him. The reason he was trying to follow her was that where Nabiki was, her sister was most likely there too, presuming she was still alive. Of course, having another person there to fight off monsters sounded fairly comforting as well.

Getting his stamina back up, he started to head down the road once again. The infamous mist was getting thick now. He fumbled with his map, first in an attempt to unfold it, before realizing that he had no idea where to go. With a groan of irritation, he folded the map back up with even more difficulty than opening it.

BANG!

"What was that?" Gosunkugi said out loud, startled at the sharp noise in the distance.

BANGBANGBANG!

"Gunfire!" The young man felt both a tight fear and sense of elation at the deadly and telling sound; that meant that someone could be alive here. "Maybe it was Nabiki…or Akane."

He started to run towards the sound, and made it fifteen steps, before his foot hit the edge of the sidewalk causing him to fall hard. His suitcase popped open, scattering most of the contents out all over the street.

Quickly picking himself up, he started to put the various odds and ends back into the luggage. A tarot deck, a red plastic disk with a snake swallowing its tail, a Star of David, a cross, an ankh, and other similar items all went back into his cheap, black, suitcase. Frantically, he rushed through his inventory check, making sure that nothing was missing, before he ran to join up with whoever was shooting down the street.

He stopped abruptly at the suddenly overwhelming sensation; something was missing something, something VERY important. He turned around slowly, looking for the item he knew he desperately needed. He had spotted the item about the same time a meat tenderizer mallet crashed into the side of his head, sending him into blackness.

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_"Have you found the husband you were looking for?"_ Nabiki asked. She had a good idea of what the answer was, but proper etiquette dictated that she ask.

_"No, I did not find Jeff."_ Nabiki almost winced at how loud the woman was talking to her, once again as if she couldn't hear her or understand her, _"All I found was more of those monster things and this."_ Mercy showed Nabiki a key chain with a little plastic figure of that damn rabbit attached, along with a couple of keys. _"All that effort for a lousy set of keys; at least I can get into my sister's house now. I know I'll find something there."_

Nabiki nodded, and then suddenly something in the back of her skull clicked on the 'something wrong' light._ "Your sister? Did you not say it was your husband's sister that lived here?"_

Mercy blinked and shook her head. _"No, I said MY sister. MY sister lives here."_ Her 'tourist' accent reached a new level of grating and aggravating, this time complete with pantomime. Her voice also had a sharp edge to it now._ "MY sister lives in Silent Hill. You must have heard me wrong."_

_"Ah, I am sorry. My English is not perfect."_ Nabiki, said smiling apologetically. Internally she was fuming, she was absolutely positive Mercy had said HIS sister.

_"Well, that's okay. I hope you find that boy you're looking for."_ Mercy responded, nodding to Nabiki, before continuing past her down the street.

_"Yes, the same to you. Be careful out there."_ Nabiki said through gritted teeth.

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"The Seal of Metatron." The girl in the bloody bridal veil picked up the tea saucer sized disk; studying the red design of a triangle within two circles painted on it. She laughed a little, as she dragged the unconscious boy along with her. "So that's how you and your family survived. Always thought this was a worthless piece of clay."

She sighed, looking at the young man over her shoulder. "A shame you had to come here…Hikaru, was it? I would have been more than happy to let you go. After all," She tossed the disk down a storm drain, turned and gave the wounded boy a sweet smile. "I don't hate _you._"

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It decided to pause a moment for a breath. It had been so long since it had rested, it felt so tired. However nothing would stop it in its goal of revenge, it was all it knew, all consuming. Walking through the mist it saw a person passing by; a very familiar silhouette that belong to someone that it knew well. Its goal was close now; all it had to do now was to kill the one it was supposed to. It approached the girl walking through the dense fog.

"Nabiki?" It put its hand on the girl's shoulder. .

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Gosunkugi blinked slowly, as he faded back into extremely painful consciousness. His head was throbbing, and he felt something encrusted on the side of his face, presumably blood. His vision was blurred and his mind was trying to catch up to recent events to find out why he was here… wherever 'here' exactly was.

He couldn't move, and was in an upright position, but his feet weren't on the floor. A glace down to his chest revealed a few disconcerting answers; he was in a straight jacket, and had been hung on a hook on the wall like some bizarre piece of modern art.

His vision was taking far too long to clear up. That was bad, since it could mean that whatever had hit him had done more damage than he thought.

"One two three four…" Good, he could still talk intelligently. His voice was strained and was just above a whisper, but it was there. This was extremely comforting, as it indicated that if there was any damage, it most likely wasn't permanent. Now that his physical concerns were put to rest, there were now more urgent questions. Where on Earth was he, and How the Hell could he get out of here?

Two blobs came into focus in front of him, one tall and one wide, the tall one was a light blue blob, the wide one was green and blue. Gosunkugi didn't know as much English as Nabiki, as she was a grade higher, and didn't have the disadvantage of a romantic influence distracting her. However, he was able to make out some of what they were saying.

"Poor kid --- no ---- kids teasing ---- laughing----not right Stan." The wide blue and green blob said to the tall light blue one.

"---true Edward---devotion---hope---returns---affection---like---beloved Heather" The tall light blue one 'Stan' said.

"----going---help---kid?" 'Edward' said.

"Certainly---needs---Japanese Girl." 'Stan's' voice dropped. They were talking about something unpleasant from the tone of their voices. He had also DEFINETLY heard the words 'Japanese Girl'. These two were talking about a Japanese Girl? Could they be talking about Nabiki? She was the only Japanese girl in the town right now…unless they were talking about…

'No! Stop right there Gosunkugi!' The hard voice in his skull told him. 'You know what happens to anyone who lets this town get to them. They all die or disappear. You're already in deep trouble, so lets just find a way to get out of here as fast as possible.'

As if on cue the soft voice came back. 'Now now Hikaru, you can't give up now. You're so close to finding her. Can you imagine how happy she'll be when you're the big hero to save her? Oh yes Hikaru I can see it now, she'll be SO grateful she'll do ANYTHING for you. You ever hear of rescue sex?'

'You made that term up,' the harsher voice stated in an unamused tone.

"Stan---kid's bleeding---nose"

"-See---Edward. -------------do it."

"----------get started."

Gosunkugi's vision snapped back into focus and he instantly wished that he couldn't see. He was hanging on the wall of a narrow hallway made out of wooden planks, into the eye sockets of two rotting corpses.

The one on the right was clothed in a decaying light blue hospital gown. The reason he was so tall was that his limbs were grotesquely stretched out from their sockets. His body was covered in crooked lacerations, like some one had cut him multiple times over and over again with a dull irregular object.

The other corpse was a fat male; the holes in his blue and green striped shirt showed the colony of maggots that lived within his engorged stomach. His body was full of holes as if someone had fired a shotgun into this man again, and again, and again.

Gosunkugi's eyes were watering from the smell of rotting flesh. The sounds of flies were going to drive him insane soon. He felt sick and he knew he was going to throw up.

A sound of footsteps echoed about; the sweetest sound in the universe to Gosunkugi's ears. He tried to turn his head to get a look at, what he sincerely, desperately, fervently, prayed to be his rescuer. He managed to get a glance of someone approaching him, not much else though.

"Help! I'm alive! Please help me! Oh God…" His mind desperately tried to form the English words. "HELP!!! Please help get down!"

The figure came into view; a woman, a Japanese woman, wearing a blood spattered bridal veil. "Nabiki? Is that you? It's me…Gosunkugi."

No response.

"Nabiki please! Someone attacked me with…a…hammer." He got a good view of the girl now as she walked in front of him. She held a cup made of a black stone in her left hand, filled with a white liquid. Tucked under her right arm were two books; one with a red cover, one with a green. Looking down to her waist of her jeans, Gosunkugi saw a meat tenderizer mallet tucked into one of the belt loops.

"W-who are you?" Asked fearfully, obvious to the fact that this wasn't Nabiki.

The Girl in the Bloody Bridal Veil didn't respond. She turned to the two corpses and placed the black chalice on the ground along with the red book. She opened the green book and began to read from it.

Gosunkugi may not have had a good grasp on English, however what he was fluent in was a strange hybrid of Celtic, Latin, Ancient Arabic, and the entire works of H.P. Lovecraft. In other words, Hikaru Gosunkugi was completely fluent in the language of the occult. So he was able to translate the arcane words the Girl spoke.

"From the blood of two sinners I create a Holy Servant." the girl in the bloody bridal veil stated loudly, "From the devotion of Lobsel Vith, and the power of Xuilchibara, I create thee."

Gosunkugi was far from stupid; obsessive perhaps, but not stupid. He could easily figure out what was happening, and whatever this 'Holy Servant' was going to do for this girl, it was NOT going to be good for him. He struggled desperately to escape his constraint, or at the very least get off this damn hook. Sadly he could make no leeway in either attempt, as the girl closed the green book and picked up the red one.

"With the power of the Gluttonous Pig, and the devotion of the Eternal Lover, I create thee as my champion, my servant, my executioner."

The girl lifted the goblet to the two corpses' lips and poured the white liquid into their parted mouths. In response, something red began to trickle out of the wounds on their bodies. She collected it in the cup, and stirred the two bodies' blood with the remaining white liquid. She turned to face Gosunkugi, revealing to him a dark smile under that veil. He clamped his lips tightly, unfortunately having seen enough movies in this genre he knew what was coming.

The girl held his nose Gosunkugi's nose, cutting off his ability to breath. The bound young man began what would probably be the most important and hardest battle in his life; if he took a breath he would be doomed, if he passed out the same result would happen. The only chance he had of saving his soul, of thwarting this girl, of helping Nabiki and Akane, would be to pray that he died.

The girl frowned; realizing the grim determination before her. If she were in the mood, she would have found it admirable that the young man she recalled as a spineless stalker would be willing to forfeit his life just to spite her. He was ready to die, she could see it in his face; if she held his nose long enough he would do it as well. She sighed at the inconvenience, let go of his nose, and waited as he wheezed through his nose to regain his breath.

"You should be honored Hikaru." the girl said to the boy that was giving her a look of deadly defiance, "You're going to become one of the strongest people in all of Nerima." She pulled back the veil, and smiled her blood stained smile as if it were supposed to be consoling.

Gosunkugi stared at the face before him, unable to comprehend the sight before him. The shock of seeing a woman he had always thought beautiful, seeing her face twisted in a grotesque parody of what he had adored.

The speechlessness brought on by the shock began to fade. His dry lips parted just a millimeter, just one millimeter, allowing almost a scant hiss, a minute pulse of his tongue, and his vocal box to report his despair.

"No."

That bloody, vengeful smile grew wider, as the girl jammed the edge of the goblet into his mouth, nearly cracking his front bottom teeth, and poured all the contents into his mouth. The pain of his teeth nearly knocked loose caused Gosunkugi to give a short cry, allowing her easier access to empty the vile liquid completely from the cup. She nearly slapped her hand over his mouth and nose, ensuring he was unable to expunge the drink she had oh so endearingly prepared for him. Gosunkugi swallowed the vile mixture in his hysterical panic, allowing the salty, coppery taste to fill his mouth, and painfully burn down his throat.

As the deceptively cold substance trickled through his system, Gosunkugi could feel an immense heat building up within him. His blurring vision and the compounding, unbearable heat did nothing to distract from the feeling that something was slowly crawling up from his stomach and over his face. The corpses returned to the blurs that they were when he woke up, and before his vision left him, the two forms across from him uttered one last statement.

"_Tu fui ego eris."_

The final thing Hikaru was capable of was to scream as the damning flames consumed his mind, his body, and his soul; the soundless roaring of the hungry fires swallowing up his almost shrill scream, suffocating it as if sucking the oxygen away from his lungs.

Then there was silence.

The girl in the bloody bridal veil waited patiently, as if she had all the time in the world. Slowly, very slowly, the thing on the wall in a Japanese schoolboy uniform that was covered by a straightjacket, looked up at the girl, and smiled, allowing corners of its mouth to crack and drip with blood.

Infinitely satisfied with her work, the girl stepped back, and replaced her veil. She caressed its face, and almost cooed in a loving, endearing tone, "Good morning, how are you feeling?"

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Nabiki screamed at the sudden contact, and spun around swinging the bat. It connected soundly hitting the creature hard with enough force to chip concrete.

"Owww!"

Nabiki paused, not expecting that response, and fully focused on what she hit. The person before her staggered back, holding his head in pain, as stars danced in his eyes, "Who…?"

"Nabiki why did you do that?!" the boy in yellow and black rubbed his head, while glaring at the middle Tendou sister. That really did hurt, and why was she so jumpy; when he touched her she nearly jumped two feet straight up in the air. If he had looked closely at her, he would have noticed the terror in her eyes. That wasn't necessary now, as he could easily feel it in the crushing hug she wrapped around his torso, sobbing, and thanking the Christian God that he recalled the three Tendou sisters worshipped he was there. However, he forced the peculiarity of the scene from his mind, most concerned with the question he asked almost every other day…

"Where on Earth am I now?"

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Author Notes: Like you didn't see this coming. WFROSE owns my soul for all of his beta reads, and the input that inspires some of this.


	7. Lost & Faith Dream

Grace & Silver

Chapter 7

Lost & Faith Dream

Disclaimer: Konami wants to kill me for using Silent Hill, Takahashi wants to kill me for using her characters, and all my readers want to kill me for writing this. This is just for fun, please don't sue.

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"Ryoga!" Nabiki whispered hoarsely. "What are you doing here?" The question was superficial, as Nabiki knew what an amazingly stupid question that was.

"I dunno," The Eternally Lost Boy said as he looked around in the faintly misty scenery. "I was heading down to the dojo to stand next to Ranma and then I'm looking at that Opera House. You know, the one they show every time on TV when someone mentions Australia. Now I'm here, I find you and you try to hit me with that bat." Ryoga glared slightly at Nabiki, causing her to favor him with the closest thing to a defiant look she could with her current temperament. "Anyways, why are you here Nabiki? This doesn't look like Nerima."

"It isn't, you're in America." Nabiki looked away from Ryoga so he couldn't see the haunted expression on her face. "Ryoga, you haven't been back to Nerima since the wedding, have you?"

"No, why? Did Ranma do something to Akane?" Ryoga asked with an almost knowing yet agitated tone.

Nabiki almost barked with laughter. After all that she had gone through, experiencing this blast of typical Neriman behavior felt so refreshing. The fact that Akane was the only person Ranma HADN'T done anything to was also humorous to her.

"Did I say something funny?" Ryoga asked confused out of his growing anger.

Nabiki wiped the amused expression off her face. "No, just…" She paused as she debated if she should tell Ryoga what was going on. One look into his confused, innocent face was enough to rule her to silence. "Ryoga, I'm glad you're here. I'm a little…" She couldn't help but go into giggles again. "I'm a little lost." Oh the God of Irony was in rare form today. "Can you help me get out of here?"

"Umm, sure. But Nabiki, I don't know where here is exactly."

"It doesn't matter." She paused, thinking for a moment, considering something, "Give me three of your bandannas." Ryoga quickly complied and untied three of his bandannas from his forehead. Nabiki tied one around her wrist, one around Ryoga's and the last one she used to connect the other two to form a crude type of handcuff. "This is so you don't end up wandering off without me. Now, let's get out of here."

Ryoga nodded, though extremely confused at this point. However, with Nabiki acting and looking like she had just been tormented by the most sadistic of captures, he thought it better not to ask too many questions at this point. As he turned down the street and started to walk, the mercenary girl fell in step beside him, her eyes closed.

Five minutes later, Nabiki opened her eyes expecting to see that opera house that goes along with every mention of Australia or some other landmark that showed that they had traveled countless miles away from her present nightmare. She was sorely disappointed. They had gone three blocks at most.

"Neely's Bar…" Ryoga sounded out the words slowly above the door of the long closed bar.

Nabiki could feel that prickly feeling on the back of her neck and unintelligible half-whispers were audible to her. "Ryoga…let's go inside. I'm cold," she pleaded; the chilly air having nothing to do with the shivers running through her.

"Alright," Ryoga agreed, before he tried the door. The lock was jammed, keeping the door from allowing them ease of entry. Ryoga decided to give the door a little shove and the lock, along with a good part of the door, broke off.

Neely's bar had long since been emptied. Newspapers coated the floor and the windows, while the remains of a squatter's camp was scattered in one corner. As Ryoga scrounged behind the old bar Nabiki stared at the newspapers plastered over the back window. "I will not." She whispered softly.

"Hmm?" Ryoga looked at the direction Nabiki was staring. "Did you say something? Oh." Someone had written a message on the newspaper in black spray paint. It was sadly beyond his ability to translate. "Nabiki, what does it say?"

"Oh…nothing. It's just gibberish and graffiti; some kids must have done it." Nabiki quickly turned towards Ryoga, pretending not to be unnerved by the 'graffiti', "Did you find anything?"

"Umm yeah, here" Ryoga held out a small red box to Nabiki, knowing what it was, but not really knowing what to do with it. The label on the box said that within there were 15 9mm bullets. Nabiki wasted no time adding it to her duffle bag, earning her a peculiar look from her company.

"Alright let's see if we can get out of here." She retied her wrist to his, regaining that slight sense of security that his presence wasn't going to vanish from her suddenly.

Nabiki took one last look at the writing as they left Neely's Bar. In black spray paint someone had written a message exclusively for her.

'NABIKI TENDOU WILL DIE ALONE.'

"I will not", she mumbled to herself one last time, before they left.

Ten more minutes of walking did have more dramatic results than before. They had gone a few miles, on the other side of the lake, but still in the damn town. Nabiki looked at the sign denoting their current position as in the parking lot for Bates' Motel. It also had a vacancy, as the NO part was unlit. "Ryoga, I'm tired…can we take a short break?" she asked, innocently, though the weariness was apparent in her voice.

"And that's why I'm okay with your sister marrying Ranma." Ryoga finished his story that Nabiki hadn't been listening to in the first place, before he registered her question "Huh? Oh sure. It's been a while since I've stopped to rest, anyhow."

One broken door later, Nabiki was looking at the typical Spartan room of a motel. Untying herself from Ryoga she dragged one of the stuffed chairs next to the bed. Sitting Ryoga down in the chair she tied the other end of his shackle to the headboard of the bed. "Don't get any funny ideas Pigboy. This is just to make sure you don't wander off without me."

She knew Ryoga could probably break the headboard clean off the wall, but that would make more than enough noise to wake her up. She toyed with the idea of a shower, but the 'humor' of being in the Bates' Motel was not lost on her, and when she turned the shower, rusty almost crimson water that came out of the shower made her feel like passing on it.

Nabiki lay down on the bed, exhausted. She shot Ryoga a look. "You better be here when I wake up, and if you so much as THINK about doing anything perverted…"

"Nabiki!" Ryoga looked mortified and a dribble of red almost came out of his nose. Nabiki smirked, nice to know that even in Hell some things are predictable. She lay back on the bed, beginning to feel lethargy overtake her. She passively looked at the non-descript lamp on the bedside table. She leaned over and opened the drawer within. Two books were within the drawer, neither one happened to be the Christian New Testament. One had a green cover, the other a deep red. The red one had embossed on it the same design that was on the door in the toy store. She quickly shut the drawer, willing herself to dispel the horrors the symbol brought to mind.

"Nabiki? What are you-oh." Ryoga bent his head in respectful silence as Nabiki rolled out of the bed and got down on her knees by the side. After a murmured prayer that sounded more than slightly pleading, and a few minutes of silence Ryoga looked up and saw that Nabiki had fallen asleep in her position. Ryoga carefully leaned out of his seat, lifted Nabiki and laid her back down on the bed. He shook his head in disbelief as he looked at her bandaged, bruised body.

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Nabiki approached the altar, and made the sign of the cross on her chest as she kneeled before the squat stone pulpit. "Father in Heaven, please give me strength. I know I have sinned so many times since I last prayed. It was for a good cause, but I know that is no excuse. So I am here asking for my penance and forgiveness."

"The is no forgiveness for one like you." A cold voice said behind her. Nabiki turned around and was staring into the barrel of a gun, and behind it was the girl in the bloody bridal veil, she could see that awful bloody smile beneath it. The girl slowly pulled the hammer back with a loud CLICK.

"Who the Hell are you?" Nabiki, demanded, and if she was to die this moment, she would know the identity of her tormenter. Deftly, she snatched away the veil before the woman could pull away… if she had even ever attempted to do so. Nabiki slowly stood up, mouth agape, as she stared into the face of the one of the few she always thought she could trust. "God, please save me." She whispered, terrified.

**_Which God do you want?_**

Nabiki looked up at where the crucifix was and screamed.

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"Nabiki!" Someone was shaking her. She screamed and flailed her arms trying to defend herself. Her attacker let go and leaned into her line of sight. She was back in the motel, with a concerned Ryoga looking upon her.

"I had a nightmare."

"Yeah, you were screaming and saying these weird words."

"Huh?"

"It sounded like gibberish. Zoochibaruhh. Something like that."

"Yeah…gibberish," Nabiki quipped in a shaky voice. "We'd better get going, I guess." She undid Ryoga's makeshift shackle and retied it to her wrist. "Alright, lead on Ryoga."

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Five minutes later they were right back in front of the Medical Center… in the same damn town.

Nabiki bit her lip, as she looked at the entrance to the Silent Hill Medical Center; someone had spray painted something on the double doors. Nabiki nearly felt faint at the recognition of the blue symbol from the books in the motel, and from the puppet show. In the border between the outer and inner circle there was a ring of runes and pictograms. An eye was at the top of the ring. "That can't be a coincidence."

"What can't be?" Ryoga said looking around trying to puzzle out how he had gotten there.

"That, spray painted on the door," Nabiki pointed, "I've seen it before."

"Nabiki…I don't see any spray paint," Ryoga said, trying to hide his growing concern for Nabiki's mental state.

Nabiki gave Ryoga a look of confusion and irritation, "Right there! That symbol with the circles and…" She shook her head and dismissed it. "Alright let's try this again." She chuckled, almost manically and mirthlessly,. "Figures, the one time I want you to get lost you manage to screw it up. How long have we been doing this?" She glanced at her watch. Then another whisper crawled up from the dark place in her mind.

_Foundyou!_

She stopped dead, and started to breathe heavily. Quickly she unhooked herself from Ryoga. Something was wrong, very… VERY wrong. She had been following Ryoga blindly for fifteen minutes, and they were still in Silent Hill. "Ryoga…" She grabbed his shoulder.

He turned around and gave her a concerned look. "Yeah? I… hey, Nabiki, you look really pale. Maybe we should go back to the motel."

_Cominggettheonemissed_

"Ryoga…run. Run as fast as you inhumanly can." She took the gun out from the back of her jeans where she had stuffed it. It was a small relief too; the movies never mention how uncomfortable it was.

Ryoga stopped short at the sight of the gun. "Nabiki, what are you doing," he asked, more concerned with the girl than with the thick fog rolling in.

They had found her, she belonged with them, she was part of them; how could they not find her? She had someone else with her, too. She may have the power to refuse God and Her glory, but he, to his great misfortune, didn't. They would take him and he would learn of God, and then he would belong.

_Makehimchangehimmoldhimlikepigirl_

"It doesn't matter, I said run. Get lost!" Nabiki looked at the confused boy. "Damnit Ryoga, they're all dead! Akane, Ranma, Akari, everyone!"

"What? What are you talk-AH!" He jumped at the bullet that hit the ground in front of him. "NABIKI HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!"

_Stapleasnouttohisfacelethimrollindecay_

"Yes, yes I have Ryoga. Now," She pulled back the hammer and pointed it at him. "Turn around…DO IT!" She had come to realize, she would rather have Ryoga peacefully dead than as ammunition against her.

Terrified, confused, and entirely weary of the deadly weapon in the maddened woman's hands, Ryoga turned around slowly. He now noticed how dark it was and the thick mist that had formed, as his trained senses and primal instincts warned him of the menacing blackness that threatened to swallow him if he chose to enter.

"Run."

"But Nabiki..."

_Lethimandhissowwallowtogetherinsin_

"I SAID RUN!" She fired the gun. It grazed his ear causing a small amount of blood to spatter on his face. Nabiki's hands were too shaking for a steady aim, she had not meant that as a warning shot.

Ryoga took off, more out of self-preservation and instinct than anything else. Nabiki had gone insane; how could everyone be dead? That didn't make sense, he was with everyone a week ago at the wedding and they were all full of smiles and life, it just wasn't possible. He had to go back; he had to find out what Nabiki meant. He stopped and turned around, intent on standing by Nabiki, and facing the darkness. When they were both safe, he would have his answers….

As he turned around, he found himself staring down the barrel of a pump action shotgun, held by a man of apparent American nationality. Behind him was a girl in an auburn sleeveless turtleneck sweater and dark green skirt with blonde hair. The man with the shotgun chambered a round, "Say something."

"Ah…" Ryoga responded, before fainting

"I don't think he's one of them, Leon," the girl stated, rather factually.

From one survival horror, to another.

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Nabiki took a deep breath, and steadied herself as she reloaded her gun. She was alone now, and unless she ran into Mercy again she would probably stay that way. The message from Neely's Bar came back to her. She was beyond fear and paranoia at this point, focused and angry to the point of fanatical. She may well end up dying somewhere with no friendly face to help her pass on, but…

"I will not die here. YOU HEAR ME YOU GODDAMN TOWN!! THROW WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT AT ME, BUT I WON'T DIE IN THIS BACKWATER, SHODDY, AMERICAN STEREOTYPED, RUIN OF A TOWN!"

She almost expected the Clinic doors to fling open and legions of those water balloon things come charging out. Nothing; just the quiet wind blowing in the black void that surrounded this town, as if it were the sadistic spirits that inhabited it laughing at her in mockery. Almost giving into the urge to sob in an odd but maddened mixture of relief and disappointment, Nabiki entered the clinic.

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Author's Notes: Like I would give Nabiki an easy out. Review, Comment, flame, I'll take it all. And WFROSE is the brilliant editor I owe so much to.

Editor's note: Yeah, I had to add the RE4 scene in, the game ownz me right now


	8. Pills, Doctor & Father

Grace & Silver

Chapter 8

Pills, Doctor, Father

Disclaimer: Takahashi Ranma. Konami Silent Hill. Me Nothing. Please don't sue, this is just for fun.

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Nabiki carefully scanned the waiting room, gun raised. No oddly moving shadows on the walls, no hideous bloated and shifting demons hiding behind the reception counter, no asphyxiating panda rug waiting on the floor, no massive self-devouring atrocity, no mocking girl in a bloody bridal veil, just one Japanese girl, slowly going insane in search of people she knew could no longer exist.

Nabiki tiredly sat down in one of the chairs, and unzipped her duffle bag. She carefully reloaded her gun with shaky hands, and tried to put the loose bullets back into the box she had ripped open fighting that… that thing in the toy store. She checked her shoulder; it wasn't as bad as she thought. The lash against her shoulder had just barely broken the skin; already having clotted over. Nabiki gave it a spray of antiseptic and a clean bandage to ensure it stayed a relatively small wound.

With a deep, shuddering breath, Nabiki went for the collection of orange prescription bottles that seemed to scream for her attention and use. First were the green diamonds. With a pause, she realized the bottle was empty. She hadn't even been aware she had used them all…

Nabiki's eyes wandered through her duffle bag, hoping to find an escaped pill, but to no avail. She went for the flat oval peach ones, and felt the hollow pit of her stomach when that one had been empty as well.

"No…oh please no." Her voice, even at a whisper, shook like a leaf desperately hanging to the bark of a dead tree in a relentless wind. Almost frantically, she rampaged through her bag, checking each bottle.

The dark blue lozenges, the yellow oblongs, the white hexagons with pink spots, all gone, every bottle was empty.

Nabiki swore as she discarded the empty bottles; already feeling the beginnings of an anxiety attack. Thankfully, the still sealed bottle of aspirin she had bought at the airport was still there and, by the weight, full. She struggled to take off the ring of plastic and then undo the childproof cap, though bandaged hand made it fairly difficult.

After a brief struggle that brought her more ragged breathing than was necessary, she carefully took out the cotton ball and dumped some of the contents onto her hand. As she was about to ingest them, the sight of a squirming mass of larva in her palm greeted her. Nabiki froze upon realization, as her lower lip quivered, as a few larva split open, pupating into flies. Upon realizing their ability of flight, the insects flew up at her face; attempting to burrow under her skin as they came in contact with her soft flesh.

Nabiki screamed as she threw the bottle away from her and began scratching at her face. It landed on the floor and with a clatter, about a fourth of the bottle's worth of white pills spilled out onto the floor.

Nabiki bent over and looked at the normal pills on the floor, she started to giggle. She collapsed to her knees before the spilt bottle, as the uneasiness in her stomach, her light-headedness, and sensation of hopelessness fueled the mirthless sound into hysteria.

"Heh, heheheHAHAHAHA!" Nabiki clutched her stomach helpless to the permeating madness, still laughing manically. She just couldn't stop, as the tears streamed down her face, laughing with a mockery of joy in her voice, and sincere terror everywhere else. Her roaring laughter changed into hiccups, then sobbing at her hopeless ordea, before giving into a fit of profane anger. Growling ferally, she vaulted the counter and charged past the reception office into the heart of the clinic.

_Ithinkilikehim_

Nabiki stopped dead where she was. She took a few cautious steps forward; shifting her grip on the bat and cocking her gun. Carefully, she slid her back against the wall, poising herself so that if it was one of those shadow things sliding behind her, she could launch herself off the wall immediately.

_Hesosswseetandkkind_

The whispers shifted in volume, as she approached the room filled with folders and files of every patient that had come here. There was a sound of someone sifting though the files and scampering around like sloths upon dry leaves.

"Hello?" Nabiki cautiously took a few steps deeper into the room with her gun at bare, and stopped. Gazing at the creature before her, she was conflicted by emotions of relief and horror. It looked so human; a kind, familiar face that she always felt she could trust. But…

She could see blood pooling in its open mouth, blending in with the bruises, sanguine, and ichor that ruined his face. Nearly all of the teeth within had been knocked out or broken, as both eyes had huge black bruises around them and his hair had been tore out in mats. His short, recognizable ponytail was still there however, distinguishing him as much as his glasses that had been smashed far beyond any practical use. His normal attire was shredded to bloody rags like strips of flesh from rotting meat. His chest had multiple bruises on it as if someone had hit him hard in the chest with fatal blows, and his legs were marred from heartless beatings, while his feet were swollen and purple around the small round indentations in them from attacks akin to a ball ping hammer. Crippled hands were uselessly attached to broken arms that were decorated long trails of nail marks all over them. Over the tattered brown gi, he was wore a doctor's white lab coat that could not conceal the bulging lump underneath.

It would be comical if it wasn't so pathetic, as it diligently worked its disfigured limps in several attempts to pick up a book that was lying on the table. Nabiki actually felt a sharp sting of pity as the sobbing thing failed again to pick up the book. It paused, before turning jerkily to look towards her. Causing Nabiki to step back when it registered her presence. It tilted its head in vague confusion, as it was finally able to pick up the book, before its bloodshot eyes widened in realization.

"Nubki? Uhh thnk Hvns!" The thing lurched towards her like a desperate and dying animal, holding out the book. The blood filled mouth gurgled and cascaded from its orifice in a valiant attempt to speak.

"Tyrr' nt duuun ull thuss. Stp hrr, yuuh ndd tuu stpp AHHHHH!" The creature threw the book aside as it screamed in pain, wildly convulsing. Nabiki almost tripped backwards in shock and revulsion as the newly free flowing blood coating the creature speckled her face and clothes.

_IWANTHIM_

A loud, wet tearing noise erupted from the bulge on the monster's back, before it popped like a cyst. The back of the lab coat ripped open exposing two long slender female arms that were as delicate and slender as a mother's. The bloody monster tried in vain to shake them off and grasp at them with dysfunctional limbs to no avail. The arms bent the wrong way and placed its hands on the monster's temples and started to squeeze.

Nabiki was rapt in the horrid scene. It was morbidly comedic; the creature flailing about, waving its arms wildly, and forming half-words through its blood filled mouth. Nabiki's stomach convulsed again, as she watched the two milky, thinly red veined orbs dangling halfway down its cheek that had sounded exactly like a cork popping at their exiting the eye sockets. Like an able contortionist hands did a sharp twist that opposed their joints, and the creature fell to the ground along with an accompanying crack of overstressed vertebrae. Nabiki couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu watching the bizarre scene as those two hands proceeded to rip the pathetic creature apart like vultures over a carcass.

The violent scene continued for three minutes, as the thing on the floor twitched and whimpered while the greedy hands tore chunks of flesh out of it. Nabiki had enough, as she finally snapped from her stupor. Looking away, she put a bullet into the thing's skull, her mercy causing it to go limp and still.

She cautiously prodded the thing on the floor with her baseball bat. It was definitely dead, blood pooling out onto the floor, washing the scattered files on the ground in crimson dye. She bit her lip in confusion, why had she looked away when she shot this thing? Certainly she looked when she took out the others, hell she almost enjoyed it. What made this one so different? "It's just another monster," Nabiki told herself. "One of those things out there."

Her attention went back to the book the thing had been so desperate to give to her. Picking it up from the bloody floor, she found that someone had stuck something in the book. Opening it revealed that a sealed plastic baggie stored within, filled with white powder. A label taped to the front of the bag named its contents.

"10 grams of PTV a.k.a. 'White Claudia'." Nabiki sounded out the words on the label. "To be held until Officer Bennet arrives from Brahms for post-analysis and disposal."

She had heard about this drug actually, everyone in Nerima did. The authorities had caught someone peddling this drug all around the ward. Since it had happened when Ranma, Mousse, and Ryoga were chasing after the Musk the Wrecking Crew didn't know about it until long after everything was settled; knowing that something from this town had gotten into Nerima so far back really churned her stomach.

She noticed that on the pages the bag had been stuffed between, someone had highlighted a few passages and scribbled on the rest of the book. Curious she checked the cover; it was a psychology textbook. Pointing her flashlight directly at the selected text she started to read.

_Narcissistic Personality Disorder: An egocentric personality. Physically preoccupied with oneself, exhibiting profound and unhealthy amounts of arrogance, self-esteem, and vanity. Can become extremely violent when presented with opposing views or evidence. May form emotional attachment to others for the purpose of subjugating and domination to reinforce their image of superiority. If the subject experiences constant reinforcement that disproves their beliefs it can result in an extremely violent mental breakdown._

_Dependant Personality Disorder: Complete reliance upon others to the extent where they lack the ability to make autonomous decisions. May experience an extreme mental breakdown, commonly depression, if they perceive that their connection to others is collapsing._

_Borderline Personality Disorder: Commonly confused with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, however while both do focus on the need for the public to acknowledge their presence constantly, the Borderline person has a lack of personal identity. Often they place themselves in a superior role to identify themselves to others. The BPD feels the obsessive need for control in all aspects around them that directly and even indirectly affect their person. Often seen as shallow, or 'two-dimensional', loss of their imagined superiority can lead to a mental breakdown that can, in extreme situations, cause a detachment from reality._

The text then went on in detail about the disorders, mostly in complicated psychological terms Nabiki couldn't translate with her minimal English skills. It was a moot point however as someone had scrawled all over the other pages in thick red marker 'NO! NO! NO! NOT ME! NOT ME! NO NO NO!'

Nabiki closed the book with an audible snap, and took a deep breath to steady herself again. She set the book down, and continued her search of the medical facility. Her mind however was still going over those last few words, 'Detached from reality?'

Her mind wandered, as she peeked her head into the empty lounge. "This is about as detached as you can get…so does that mean that none of this is real?" She shook her head violently banishing the thought; that was absurd. Though far from a psychologist, she doubted she suffered from one of those disorders. Actually, she was fairly certain. Nabiki Tendou was not mentally disturbed. "That thing with the pills, the warping of the town, those demonic creatures…those were all constructs of the town."

After all there were many cases of this happening here, so it was the town that was insane, not her.

"Right?" Nabiki asked herself, out loud.

She realized that she had reached the end of the hallway, and had discovered nothing but an assortment of empty rooms. Sighing at the surprising lack of activity, she started to walk back to the front of the clinic when she paused. On the door labeled janitorial supplies, someone (And Nabiki had a good idea who at this point) had drawn that same damn blue design. Right below it they had stapled a few pages to the door. Nabiki recognized them instantly as belonging to the storybook she had found in the toy store's puppet theater.

She found her hands pulling the cardboard cover out of her bag; these pages were very important. Her hands were millimeters away from grabbing when she paused. Long ago Nabiki read that the human brainstem is very similar to that of a lizard's; as her hand hovered near those pages she could feel her lizard brain ringing alarm bells, flashing lights, and screaming DANGER at the top of it's lungs. But still she pulled the pages off the nail and began to read the worlds aloud…

_In the town there was a boy and a girl._

_The girl was sick and angry to the boy._

_The boy tried to love the girl, with all of his heart._

_Then the Boy did something wicked to the Girl._

_Now the Girl is doing something wicked to the Boy._

_Pity the Girl._

_Pity the Boy._

There was a soft click and the door quietly swung open. Nabiki started to see what looked like a broom closet but she was more preoccupied with the sound of a wailing siren. Again the noise seemed to go straight into her brain hitting some primal fear node within. Nabiki hunched over lurching right and left, her hands over her ears still clutching the pages and her gun. It was unbearable.

She managed to keep from blacking out immediately this time, but her senses seemed to revolt against her own mind, as the world blurred around her forming shapes and blurs that she couldn't process to be of earth. The smell of copper filling her nose and the air seemed to have a new texture, a thick, almost rotten, one. Her skin was literally crawling all over her body, and she could have sworn that she saw the veins in her arms turning black. There was a sense of movement but she couldn't tell where, her head was ringing with pain and the sound of that siren. Still she kept her eyes open for a few more moments before her body surrendered to blackness. The last thing she saw was her father, but it wasn't. He seemed eerily normal, yet she knew he was yet another one of those damnable creatures. She then registered his face, as it was vibrating in the same kind of movement that resembled a paint shaker. However it was just his face moving, his head stood perfectly still, and two gloved hands spun two valve wheels, faster and faster and faster. Nabiki was able to register one last thing before she finally passed out.

Whatever was behind her father's face was smiling at her.

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Author's notes: The three descriptions of the personality disorders are extremely exaggerated versions with some added dramatic elements. They are about as 'based in reality' as a Law and Order episode is 'Based on the Headlines.' They are meant for the purposes of entertainment, NOT psychotherapy.

And as always all reviews are welcome and WFROSE is a great guy for editing.


	9. Nurse

Grace & Silver

Chapter 9

Nurse

Disclaimer: Konami's Silent Hill and Takahashi's Ranma belong to their respective owners. This is just for fun, please don't sue.

WARNING: Remember Devouring Puppet? This is worse.

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Hell is rust and blood.

That's the first thing that came to Nabiki's mind when she regained consciousness. Hell was not fire and brimstone and torturous heat, nor was it the dark, artic and barren infernum that Dante visualized. Everything in Silent Hill is covered in blood and rust. From that, one who held facts and logic sacred above philosophy and spirituality came to the conclusion that Silent Hill was Hell; rusty, bloody damnation.

She was not in the Medical Clinic anymore; and she didn't really want to know where she was. It was a long corridor with doors along one side, with the floor a steel grating over ebony abyss like that in the toy store. Scattered around the hall were demolished wheelchairs, thrashed hospital gurneys, and other mangled forms of medical equipment. On the back of one of the wheelchair backs there were stenciled letters.

'Property of Brookhaven Hospital'.

Nabiki checked her map/brochure; she found it easily enough, but if she was in the hospital, then that meant that she had been transported halfway across the town when she was out cold. Well, if that was all that happened she would be exceedingly grateful. The question of who had done it came to her. Was it that thing with her father's face? What the hell WAS that thing anyway? Whatever it was, it was gone now and Nabiki had no problems with the idea of never seeing it again either.

Meticulously checking herself over, she found no track marks, no puncture wounds, nothing aside from the damage she had already taken. Her duffle bag, windbreaker, baseball bat, and gun were all arranged on a gurney on top of a sheet draped over it. She didn't dare lift to see what was the large lump underneath.

Nabiki saw that the way was fairly clear; the piles of wreckage blocked the doors and created a more or less straight path to a set of double doors titled by stencil as being the entrance to the Operating Theater. After gathering her supplies and getting herself ready for combat she quietly and cautiously tread through the hall towards the beckoning doors.

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It was enthralling. The very air itself seemed to be alive and sweet as she watched them. The old hag lay on the ground gasping for air, while the whimpering of those two filthy outsiders formed a melodic cacophony that only she seemed to enjoy. Most of all their smiles were content and joyous, like they hadn't a care in the world. It was as close to bliss as she had seen, so happy and carefree. It was beauteous.

She rubbed her eyes from all the dust in the air. She hadn't blinked the entire time as her eyes feasted upon the splendor before her. Ranma thrashing away the fur with his mother's sword, as Akane gently cradling her father's head as her hands and nails worked to strip tether by tether of flesh. That foul, icy middle sibling of the commoner family her dear Ranma was forced to reside with remained laid out cold on the floor, as people started to come to grips with reality; spurned by the smells of salty copper and fresh fear. She felt a dampness along her leg and realized that she had wet herself; unsure if it was out of fear, or exhilaration.

She looked down at the faint tugging on her arm. Someone was yelling at her to get up and move. She obeyed only when two pairs of arms forcibly lifted her up out of her seat. Her eyes remained fixed in the dusty air on the wedded couple. They were so happy, so very, very happy.

Gods, she wanted to be that happy.

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The operating theater was a large round room with a blood stained operating table and an EKG machine occupying its center. It was turned on, yet to Nabiki's chagrinned fortune wasn't hooked up to anyone. Its screen showed a long flat line along with the accompanying drone that remained unchanging for the moments she stared at it; a long, piercing beep being the only sound accompanying her fear-ragged breath. The floor had changed from mesh grate to riveted metal plates bolted haphazardly upon sparse sections of steel grates. Through the gaps, past the metal holes she could see a black endlessness beyond.

The walls were sweating, Nabiki noticed with a growing dread from the mounting surreality. She calmed herself, once she realized it was just condensation from the little mist and drips of water escaping the corroded metal pipes that lined the walls. Above where she stood were rows of benches circling the room, where prospective doctors, nurses, and other medical students would sit up there and observe the activities before them.

Nabiki chuckled a little as she pictured the scene. She had wanted to be a doctor once, a long, long time ago. She had wanted to be a number of things actually, but, like the dolls back at Maxine's, she had to put that fantasy aside.

"It just wasn't fair, you took away all of it." Nabiki mumbled staring at the operating table. She paused as she realized what had left her lips. Where had that come from? Who was she talking about? Could she have mean-

BEEP.

Nabiki broke away from her introspection, her body back in alert as her startled instincts flushed her being with adrenaline.

BEEP.

There it was again. A high-pitched noise that broke from the long, constant pitch….

BEEP……….BEEP

The EKG machine's obnoxious bleep, but it only broke like that if it were reading a pulse…

BEEP…BEEP…BEEP

_Ihatethatbitchsomuch_

It was another one of those whispers. A new one too, and, if the EKG machine meant what she thought it meant, then it was getting closer, fast.

_KillhernutjobKillHerpsychopathkillher_

The machine was beeping faster and faster, as if whoever it was monitoring was in the throes of a heart attack. What's more, the sounds of approaching footsteps began to accompany it

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"That's the third day the Kuno place has been quiet." Hiroshi's mother said as they walked by the front gate. "It's unnerving."

"I know, but then again everything happening here lately is unnerving." Her friend said. "Did you hear what happened to our sons' teacher?"

Hiroshi's mother shook her head. "A tragedy, she was so young, and pretty too." She sighed again. "I think we're going to be moving soon. My sister in Osaka is willing to help us find a place there."

"Leave Nerima?" The friend replied. "I don't think I could do that." She sighed. "You go ahead, I have to check on the Kunos. I'm worried about them, even if they are a bit eccentric."

"Alright," Hiroshi's mother said shaking her head. "But I really think that this place isn't safe anymore."

The woman watched Hiroshi's mother walk away with her groceries. She just couldn't understand what she was going to do with the funnel and those bottles of drain cleaner. Anyways she had her neighbors to check up on. The front gate was unlocked, so she marched right up to the front door and rang the bell.

"Who is it?" The singsong, almost husky voice of the young Kuno girl replied.

"Miss Takabana, your neighbor. Is everything alright dear?"

"It's perfect, we could never be happier." Kodachi replied though the door. "But please excuse my rudeness." She opened the door. "Please do come in."

At the young girl's appearance, Ms. Takabana gasped, stepping away like a small animal facing a ravenous wolf, "Ah…oh…I'll be fine. I-I-I have errands…and…glad to see you're okay…"

"Oh please, I insist."

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It was human. No, it only looked human; it only resembled the person Nabiki remembered. It was about as tall as she was; with the height topped with long, ink black hair that had been untied from the ponytail she normally kept it in and allowing it to cascade down her back

It was smiling too; a lipless, crescent shaped opening in the pale skin of the face. Instead of gymnastics leotard, it wore a full Nurse's uniform; a white blouse, skirt, and an apron draped over it. White shoes with no heels, white gloves, white stockings completed it, and to tie up the whole costume a little hat pinned to its head complete with a little red cross on it. A scalpel clutched in its hand.

Nabiki was struck by a strange sense of conflicting ironies, as she looked at the monstrosity. In one way, she would see this as a perversion of the town, twisting an image that she would usually associate with healing into a monstrosity. And yet, she found it strangely apt that something like this would only exist to kill her, clothed from head to toe in the pristine void of color that Japanese associated with death. Before her stood an angel of mercy… that promised none.

The EKG machine was beeping wildly, out of control, yet was drowned out by the wildly throbbing sound of Nabiki's heartbeat in her ears. She kept her eyes locked on the monster, as she got her gun and bat in arm. The thing's thin line of a smile stretched further across its face, as it shifted its weight to the right and moved. Nabiki reacted to its slight movement, and fired.

Nabiki jolted from the sound of the gunshot, barely even realizing it reported until the audible blast. The Bullet harmlessly hit one of the pipes lining the room causing a gout of water to burst out. The feeling of motion behind her! Nabiki spun around and raised the bat just in time to block the uniformed monster from stabbing her in the back with the surgical knife. Nabiki pushed it away trying not to show panic at realizing it not simply moved, but feinted and moved faster than she could follow. This thing was quick and smart; and possibly much more deadly than any of the monstrosities she had ever faced.

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The police came after the third person that had entered the Kuno estate reported missing. The household was still disturbingly quiet. The door was unlocked so the officers entered carefully, wholly cautious of what dangers the notorious Kuno grounds were set with. The first thing that hit them was the smell, a stench that festered in their noses like wretched decay.

"This is the police." Officer Maniwa called out. "Kuno-san? Tatewake Kuno? Kodachi Kuno? Anyone?"

No reply. The officer turned to his partner and superior Officer Ikari with a perplexed look on his face. Ikari motioned that they should get their guns at ready, emphasizing that even under Japan's strict gun control guidelines, this situation most likely warranted the precaution. The safeties were released, before they proceeded further into the manor.

There was something in the main room. It looked like a huge upturned bowl. The stench was so bad here you cold almost see the odors floating in the air in an almost comical way. Maniwa looked at his superior for guidance.

"You go check out the rest of the house." Officer Ikari said wincing from the smell, and put a handkerchief over his nose in order to dull down the intensity. "I'll see what that is."

Coughing, and desperately glad to be getting away from the smell Maniwa nodded and went deeper into the manor.

Ikari, along with another officer, approached the large object in the room. It really looked to be like a bowl of some kind and if definitely was where the smell was coming from. Getting closer to the thing the aged detective gaped, once he realized what it was.

"A turtle shell?"

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Nabiki flinched, as she tried to fire again but missed, hitting another one of the pipes, and causing yet another gout of water. The sound of aging pipes being pushed to their limit indicated that she wouldn't have to shoot anymore to cause them to burst. The damn machine was beeping incessantly, only adding to the roaring of water hitting the floor and falling through the grates into infinity. And then, as if the fates decided that Nabiki wasn't in enough auditory pain, the demoness in a nurse's outfit started to laugh, an awful noise that clawed at her eardrums with needle like talons.

It was just too much, as the awful noises compiling for her misery. Nabiki staggered back, with her hands clenched to her ears and her eyes screwed shut. Just barely above the unrelenting pain, she felt a sense of movement to her left rushing it as if it was coming in for the kill. Still with her eyes clamped tight, she swung the bat wildly with one hand and shot three times blindly with a Hail Mary thrown in for good measure.

A meaty thud, one metallic ping, and two muffled thuds responded. Opening her eyes showed her that, miracles of miracles, she had squarely connected with her bat and two of her bullets. Its gut leaked crimson that colored the filthy, shallow water it lay in. There was no way anyone could survive that.

That's why Nabiki wasn't that surprised when she saw that the creature was beginning to get back up. Aloud, she amended her statement to better suit the situation. "Anyone human."

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The wretched and spoiled air robbed his breath, but still Ikari walked around the huge turtle shell to see what exactly it was doing here. "Hey," He motioned for one of the officers. "Find a ladder so I can see what's in here." The man nodded and took off, leaving the commanding officer to for his assigned task.

Ikari's shoe hit something hard and the object skidded across the floor. He raised an eyebrow, as he picked it up with gloved hands. It was a large collar with 'Mr. Green Turtle' engraved on it. Well now he knew where the shell came from. Of course the next question was that what was Mr. Green Turtle's home doing here without Mr. Green Turtle? Ikari really didn't like any of the ideas that were coming to answer his question, prompted by the overpowering stench.

The officer returned with a ladder and they propped it up next to the shell. Ikari, holding the 'benefit' of seniority, climbed up the ladder to look within. The officer watched dumbfounded as his superior calmly climbed down and left the building. He walked up to the pond in the yard and threw up into it, before he calmly returned to the front steps of the Kuno household and sat down, lighting a cigarette with shaking hands.

"Sir?" The officer who got the ladder walked up to him. "Sir what did you see? What's in that thing?"

Ikari just shook his head. It wasn't the piles of bodies, it wasn't the copious amounts of blood, and it wasn't even the fact that they had been putrefying for the last couple of days. It was the posh, luxurious mattress in the middle of all of that death and mutilation. Ikari still felt ill picturing it, imagining the fact that whoever was responsible for that was sleeping in it as well.

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Nabiki fought to steady her breath, but found herself losing to her anxiety and panic. She had swung this thing, shot this thing, and had actually hit the monster too, nothing seemed to work!

The laughter tore through her. The atrocious laughter mixed with the maddening sharp and thunderous pinging of the machine made for a abominate symphony that grated at her sanity fiercer than the shrilling scream the creature in the puppet theater had made. She could barely focus past the vicious and insane noise, but managed to concentrate on the pale nurse, as it made another running pass at her.

Her body responded almost automatically in a desperate effort to protect itself. The baseball bat rose up for a block and the gun swung around to fire; both weapons brought to use out of the instinct for self-preservation. Two sharp clangs preceded a thunder peal from the gun; a point blank shot that nothing should survive. The side of its head exploded, as the bullet exited of the temple from its trek beginning under its victim's jaw. The concussive blow threw the monster away, only to have its short journey end on the floor with a wet thump; skidding away from Nabiki and up against the wall for the lack of traction caused by the water slicked floor. However, during its flight backwards it snaked the scalpel around Nabiki so that she would be impaled from behind. Thankfully Nabiki had dodged to the side in suspect of a retaliating swipe, but it wasn't enough.

She could feel the blade dig into her flesh, and the warm blood dripping down her cheek, chilling her as it met with the cool, musty, and humid air. She didn't feel any pain though, just a strange sensation like ripping apart two pieces of wet Velcro. She staggered back her had to her face, trying to stop the blood flow she understood was there without realizing it. Even as her hands dove for the bandages and salves in her bag she just couldn't make what was happening feel real.

The thing was struggling to get up off of the ground; the water giving it no form of traction with its damaged limbs. Nabiki took the precious time given to stop the blood as best she could under the circumstances. What had happened hit home when she got a look of herself in the reflection of the EKG monitor, she had no idea if that shriek came from the machine, the monster, or her own throat. The thing had cut off two-thirds of her ear, and the last third was just hanging on by a tether of skin and cartilage.

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Maniwa, staying to one side of the doorway, slowly pushed open the door of the master bedroom, investigating the light from within. The soft sounds of gentle moans punctuated by short near-animal grunts became audible. The obvious sounds of fornication, as the stench that seemed to permeate the whole manor became mingled with the sweaty, heady smell of sex. Maniwa gingerly crept into the room with his gun at ready. He paused momentarily, as he looked down in disgust; the rug was wet and sticky, stained with some dark substance.

A girl with ink black, mussed and unkempt hair was lying prone on the bed, moaning softly, sharing an embrace with one other. "Oh…oh Ranma…yes oh God YES!"

"Kodachi Kuno? Sir?" Maniwa slowly approached the duo of lovers, gun leveled. "I must demand that you cease, and put your hands where-" He stopped mid-sentence in sheer shock when he saw what Kodachi and her 'partner' were doing.

She wasn't simply covered in blood, she was bathed in it, and garbed dried fresh and ichors; her eyes rolled back in her head and her mouth a wordless scream. Her lover was a misshapen couple of clothing store mannequins attached together; a head, a torso, legs, and other unmatched limbs to form a parody of a human male. She had stapled photos of some dark haired boy to every surface of its body, and its hand held a kitchen knife that slowly cut into the flesh of her right shoulder while she languishly gyrated against its inanimate form. The presence of other lacerations on her body made it clear that this was far from a new activity. The blade dug clumsily into her flesh again, forcing her to emit another moan. Her other hand probed and groped around the doll, as her nails dug into the back of it so hard to dig furrows into the wood, and cause her fingernails to peel and bleed.

"Oooooh Ranma, ohhh yes…ohhh, not so hard please! Oh yes! Oh more please more!" Maniwa stood with his mouth agape, as he became the voyeur to such depravity. Kodachi remained unaware of his presence, as she arched her back, slightly pulling her freely bleeding shoulder off the glistening blade, as a chocked whimper left her throat.

"Dear God in Heaven…" Maniwa mumbled under his shuddering breath, starting at the scene. "CALL AN AMBULANCE!"

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The thing finally seemed to regain its balance, the screeching laughter still coming out of it, as its shoulders trembled.

Nabiki was frantic, and more than a little hysterical, as the blood flowing down her cheek began to pool where her jaw met her neck. That damn EKG machine was beeping hysterically, and the laughter of the thing in the nurse's uniform burrowed into her eardrums. Giving into madness, Nabiki became determined to silence at least one of the damnable noises.

She ran over to the damn machine and ravenously tore out one of its wires. The machine dropped from hysterics to the steady drone of a flat line. At the sudden loss of one overpowering and steady sound, she began to think a little more clearly. The frayed wires of the cable in her hand still sparked with electricity; the thing was still powered, even without a closed circuit. Turning to the monster she saw that it was back on its feet, trodding towards her in an unhurried pace through the dirty water that reached both their ankles. Its thin grin cracked, showing pure white teeth that bit into the almost non-existent bottom lip.

Nabiki looked at the sparking cable in her hand, and threw it down onto the spreading puddle on the metal floor. Before it landed, she quickly leaped up on the blood soaked operation bed. The following crackle was very satisfying, the floor even lit up for a fraction of a second. The machine overloaded, and sputtered out from its attempt to provide power over such a wide surface. The rubber wheels holding up Nabiki's perch kept the platform from being grounded, and protecting her from anything more than a minor jolt. Any longer, and they wouldn't have been able to take much more. The smell of burnt flesh wafted in the air where the permeating laughter had reigned; the creature before her smoldered, and remained unmoving.

The thing in the uniform didn't jerk around or writhe with convulsions, only dropping to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut. The little clatter of the scalpel falling from dead hands onto steel grated floor was the only sound heard for what seemed to be an eternity.

Distrusting, Nabiki fired off one more shot to the thing's head to make sure it wouldn't get up again. Nabiki almost elated in the smell of burnt flesh, and was a little surprised to find a smile on her face; one that remained as she ripped the remaining pieces of flesh that once made up her ear and applied a fresh bandage using the last of her first supplies.

A new sound erased the smile from her face quickly.

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They put Kodachi in the room that was across from Daisuke in what was rapidly being called the 'Nerima Wing.' The suicide, murder, and…other…cases kept pouring in. Sadly she passed away after a week of her therapy, the doctor was very upset with himself. He did everything perfectly by the book; there was no logical reason as to why her heart exploded within her chest.

In this day and age, electroshock therapy was completely safe.

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The sound of enthusiastic applause caused Nabiki to snap to attention again, searching the room for the source. Standing above her in the seats reserved for young medical students to gawk at the procedures below was that damnable girl in the bloody bridal veil.

"You!" Nabiki snarled and aimed her gun with her trembling hand. An empty gesture, there was no way she could hit that girl, a fact that they both were aware of. The Girl in the Bloody Bridal Veil responded by tossing something down to Nabiki.

Nabiki jumped back as the object hit the floor with a sticky sound. It was a lump of noodles. The kind you get when you put noodles in water before the water boils. The starch doesn't get boiled out right and you are left with this…congealed mass. Nabiki was very familiar with this kind of mass, mostly from the nights that Akane cooked. Speared in the middle of it was a pair of chopsticks with _Lucky Jade Restaurant _engraved on them along with some meaningless Chinese characterShe was really getting tired of this, following that girl's clues every time she threw one of these ba-. A flash of insight hit her and caused her lo actually laugh a little.

"Oh. I get it now." She said to the Girl standing above her, a little laughter creeping into her voice. "Follow the bouncing ball. Cute, cute. Now, who the Hell ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" She screamed.

The Girl in the Veil just shook her head waving her finger at Nabiki in a chastising fashion, before she turned around and left the room. Nabiki sighed, as her rage deflating uselessly. She left the operating room, and made her way to the exit know that it would be pointless to try and catch the girl.

A quick check of her map showed her that another long hike back across town was in order. Gods above, she hated this town. Muttering to herself she opened the doors to the hospital and walked outside.

"You have to be kidding me." Nabiki stated in a bland tone. She didn't think it was possible, but Silent Hill had gotten worse. The sky was still pitch black and snow was still falling but everything else was gone. Wait that was inaccurate…everything remotely normal was gone. The buildings were warped and leering, peering down onto the street. Parts of the common western design had been replaced by gothic architecture. In fact at one spot in the street it seemed like a Japanese pagoda and a brick building were leaning and twisting in on each other like some anarchical architectural form of copulation.

The road had been replaced by the metal grating that was in the puppet theater and the hospital. In the distance, framed by the pitiful light of her pocket light she could see the movement of those shifting masses; distinguishable shadows, shapeless masses… gods only knew what they could be. Looking beyond them, Nabiki found a vast abyss where the town south of the hospital should have been. Now, there were only rust and blood stained pillars rising from the black, ending in windmills lazily whirling in the air despite the absence of any wind.

Reorganizing her belongings, Nabiki got ready for her travels into this new face of Silent Hill. She froze in horror, her foot halfway off the ground, when she realized something…

Why was she there again? As vaguely as she could recall, it had something to do with the couple in the picture she was carrying...

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Author's Notes: Every Silent Hill needs a nurse, it's the law! Thanks go to WFROSE for his editing. The usual invites for reviews and comments, and also a big thank you to Dark1 Ultimate. Thanks for reminding me about Kodachi, can't believe I almost skipped her!


	10. Teacher, Third Mercy & Symbols

Grace & Silver

Chapter 10

Teacher, Third Mercy, and Symbols

Author Notes: English is in italics.

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There is a certain peace that comes with the knowledge of your impending death.

Nabiki carefully walked around the mangled pile of metal that littered the street, as she wearily eyed the amorphous water balloon creatures laying betwixt and upon the jagged forest, completing some twisted form of art. The little slurping and gasping noises emitted from them as they undulated on top of the bloody wreckage made Nabiki shudder in a strange sensation of comfort and revulsion. She supposed that they were feeding on something within the pile, comparing the sounds humorously to Ranma's own eating habits. What they were feeding on and how exactly they ate were questions she had no intention of finding out; as long as they were thoroughly distracted from her, she was more than content to leave them to their meal.

Those damn whispers were always there now. Chattering away in her ears like some unseen crowd that hid in the shadows with their own intent to tear at her sanity. It was always the same thing too; pity for the shadows, contempt for the rugs, and the water balloon things received a stomach churning mixture of innocent love and damnable fear. Nabiki thought she knew the source of the whispers; that was no great secret, but the whys and how still eluded her. Once again those questions were pushed away in favor of devoting as much of her mental capabilities as possible to assist the instinct of survival.

Still the questions kept coming, why her? Why was it her that was invited to this Hell; she had never even heard of this place before yesterday. There was a gargantuan chunk missing in the picture of what was going on here and that ate at her enough to overcome the near overwhelming fear that was just at the brink of her psyche. Her base instincts were becoming hisses and growls, like a reptile or dog warning of great danger, but Nabiki's higher functions either couldn't it or refused to.

Another turn within the maze of sharp scrap metal and malformed flesh lead to another moment of unrefined stealth, as she slipped by what looked like a mass of the black and white rugs and the shadow things writhing upon one another like two snakes. The sounds that came from them were soft groans accompanied by a wet, sucking sound, that only brought Nabiki a greater feeling of revulsion than before. Still the obscenity kept those things preoccupied enough to allow her to walk by them unheeded, so she continued on and ignored the gut wrenching sounds behind her.

One block, and one more turn away from the restaurant now. Nabiki's nerves had been stretched beyond the breaking point. Her rational mind had become a traitor, as it just couldn't see anything else than her approaching death now. Boiled or perhaps frozen to death as one of those water balloon things grasped onto her like leeches; asphyxiated by one of those rugs while her body was crushed by that matted pad of veins and flesh and fur; her throat slowly spit open by the shadows, forced to witness their lament and weeping as she bled to death. The images kept coming and the thought repeated again and again; she would die before she left this wretched place.

"Nabiki…"

She screamed. Spinning around in a blind panic waving the blood stained bat frantically. Her screaming stopped short, as a sick feeling entered her mind; she had probably just alerted every single one of those monsters she had passed as to her presence.

"Nabiki…Miss Tendou." The voice beckoned, the source coming from the alleyway in front of her. It seemed familiar, she couldn't quite place it, but it did seem like she had heard it once before. As she pondered the voice's origin, the familiar whispers arose up from the recesses of her mind, a la radio finally coming in contact with a heavily static filled broadcast signal…

_Littlebratannyoingbitchchokeonyourcoins_

It walked out from the alley slowly, almost staggering as if mortally wounded. A mature woman in a yellow dress that was just a little bit too tight for decency, long brown hair that made Nabiki envious with its vibrancy, and the same hell dragged look that Nabiki knew was mirrored on her face.

"Please help…it hurts so much." It whimpered as it walked towards her. It looked so human; the face, the eyes, the body… everything a stark change from those awful monstrosities she had been fighting, and somehow that made it even more unsettling.

"Stay back!" She pulled the hammer back on her gun. The click that came from it sounded was absolutely pathetic, far from the imposing sound the movies had shown. Still the creature walked towards her, a look of hurt now on her face.

"Nabiki, please!" The gun in Nabiki's hands lowered slightly, as Nabiki felt the desperation in the creature's plea, "I know you aren't the cruel person she says you are. Please, help me." She held out her arms to the backing away girl. The long gashes along the underside of her forearms showed. A thin layer of just barely clotted blood covering the telling wounds, right before her elbows the jagged pieces of glass she had used to make the gashes still stuck out of her arms.

"Please Nabiki," the creature barely held back a sob, seeing it's potential salvation retreating fearfully, "I want to get out of here, she's hurting us. Please help me!" She begged. "She's making us like it…force feeding us her dogma…help please…"

Nabiki almost decided to blow the monster's brains out when an idea clicked on inside her mind. This creature…what if it really wasn't trying to hurt her? True it could be a trick, a simple attempt to lure her near then attack her, but then again there was that poor creature in the Medical Clinic. If anything that thing tried to help her. So should she trust this one? Like the other one it had looked like someone had been beating on it for a while. The pros and cons weighed against each other and came up even, so she flipped a coin in her mind. It came up heads.

Slowly Nabiki lowered her firearm still keeping it ready if she needed to use it after all. "Miss Hinako?" She said cautiously as she took a little step towards the creature.

"Oh…oh thank God." The creature that looked like the Furnikan teacher said sobbing. "I thought you were going to kill me."

"I could say the same." Nabiki replied keeping a distance from her. "Do you know what the hell is going on?"

The woman shook her head. "No, no. All I know is being at the wedding and seeing…seeing…" Miss Hinako broke down sobbing again. "It was horrible."

Nabiki did something very stupid. She walked up next to the poor woman and put a hand on her shoulder. Before she knew what was happening the thing had sprung up and had wrapped her hands around her. Nabiki panicked for a moment, then she noticed that the only thing Miss Hinako was doing was holding her, crying. A moment of confusion and then Nabiki found herself returning the hug, sobbing just as hard. Relief washing over her in such force that she started sobbing again.

"Miss Hinako, please tell me, what is happening? Who are you talking abou-" She stopped dead as she felt something where her hand was. Her lower hand was on Hinako's stomach area, in an attempt to support her, and under her hand, directly under the skin, something moved.

Hinako groaned and held her stomach. A barely human sound coming out of her mouth. She looked even paler than before, if that was possible. Nabiki stated to back away. "Are you okay?" As soon as the words left her lips she realized what a stupid question that was.

"O-ohh God…" Hinako said in a studdering whimper, before she collapsed to her knees in a series of dry heaves. A horrible gagging sound came from her throat, heralding a mixture of several bile and blood that dribbled from the corners of her mouth.

Nabiki ran up to the woman to see if she could help. There was no way she would let her only true lead to some real answers go. "Miss Hinako! Please, what's wrong? What's wr-"

"It hurts…" Hinako said as another stream of life fluid and gastric juices came out of her mouth, staining her yellow dress. Nabiki couldn't stop staring at the two lumps writhing around under her skin. The two moving bulges came into contact with each other, there was that horrible pause, the moment where all involved parties realized that something truly horrendous was about to occur, marked by Hinako's piercing scream.

It wasn't the scream that caused Nabiki to panic. It wasn't that under Nabiki's hand she had felt the sensation of a water balloon popping from being over filled. Nor that it was followed by a small amount of blood flowing down her legs. The sound wasn't it either, a muffled bang and then a sound of a wet pop and a little dripping noise complete with a soft hiss. It was that right after the scream, when Nabiki realized what had just transpired, that Miss Hinako's stomach had just exploded, that was when she started to panic.

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_ Please let me die._ He whimpered pathetically. The hard, calm voice had gone away and with it all of his sense and planning. Just this thing was left, and he begged it, God, anyone to make it go away. Every time he did that horrible soft voice would come back and respond in the same way.

_ How can I go away? I'm you. Now, open the box and load it. Remember when you did this before? Don't worry, I helped you then, remember? There are better places to put these than in your own skull._

Sobbing he complied, or maybe he was just doing things he wanted to, either way he wanted to die. But he knew he was far too much of a coward to even try.

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One of the lumps crawled up from her mid-section and towards her right shoulder. Nabiki backed away from Miss Hinako was the lump finally reached the scabbing would along her arm. Slowly something pushed through the membrane, causing fresh blood to drip down her arm. Its head broke through so suddenly and receded as quickly that Nabiki didn't have time to register what it was. It did it again though and then she realized what it was. A blue… fish?

The second lump had left the mid section and was crawling up her back. The first fish ran back up the length of the arm and the two met at the right side of the creature's head. A quick sharp pop sound, and the Miss Hinako monster's eye burst. The milky white substance that once were eyes dripped down its face, as the right side of her skull became distended and warped. The fish then slid down to her throat where they met again.

The pop sound was a lot louder now and the damage was a lot worse. The whole front of the throat was ruptured as if the monster had swallowed a firecracker, and Nabiki was spattered with bits of skin and flesh. She looked back at the thing and saw that it was still trying to move towards her, making little gagging noises with what remained of her larynx. Nabiki's eyes widened further, as she began to notice, oh so slowly, Hinako's heavily damaged face began to knead back together in spite of the bulges caused by the foreign organisms maliciously traveling beneath her flesh, subtly beginning to heal what couldn't possibly be rectified naturally. She realized the real extent of the older woman's suffering; the cycle of pain would begin and again, while permanently taking out whatever was within reach. The blue fish and its companion red fish, fighting fish now that Nabiki could see their large dorsal fins, splashing around in the hollow before they split up and began to swim around within the creature's body.

"Please…" Nabiki raised her gun. "Please, go away. I don't want to shoot." But she did. Every part of her logical mind was screaming at her to shoot. If those blasts kept getting bigger and bigger then she could be in danger, a bone fragment flying out could easily do a lot of serious damage. And it was the merciful thing to do, the poor thing was in ever lasting pain. But… the more the thing pleaded, the more human it became, the more familiar it was, the more she realized that this was Hinako in physical anguish and hellish torture. The tears running down its cheeks from what was left of her tear ducts as it gagged fueled Nabiki's own. It would be a favor for it just to shoot the thing.

But she couldn't, as much as she wanted to she couldn't tighten her finger around the trigger. It was the same with that thing in the clinic, but then again, these weren't just things. These were people she knew; even trusted; she just couldn't take herself to put a bullet in Miss Hinako's head, finishing what her curse had started. So she backed away, until she couldn't any more.

Pressed against the side of some building, she could only beg as the creature slowly crawled forward, its arm held out in a plea for help. Then, with a bang that did not come from within, Miss Hinako's face was blown out from behind. It collapsed to the ground, body and fish unmoving, as the gore, blood, and remaining eyeball fluid dripped off of Nabiki's face.

Nabiki's mind just stopped, overwhelmed at what had just happened. For a moment then entire world seemed to go away for a while as she tried to regain what she had left of her mind. When she came to her senses again she was crouched down low, her hands cupped around her mouth. They were covered in fluids, and her stomach stung in pain. A sound of footsteps and a voice approached her.

"_Wow, that looked close." _Mercy said putting what she felt was a comforting and steadying arm on Nabiki's shoulder. "_Good thing I got where when I did, huh Nuku?_"

Nabiki responded by hitting the woman alongside her head.

"KONO AMA!" Nabiki screamed, delivering another fierce punch to the American's face with her burnt hand; it hurt like hell, but her fury allowed her to ignore the pain. Nabiki didn't care as she stood over the fallen woman, tears falling down her cheeks. "BAKA! SHE WAS NO MONSTAH! SHE HERUP US, PROBABRY! KUSOBAKA!" She kicked her hard in the shin and then collapsed to the ground sobbing.

"_What the hell is wrong with you?" _Mercy screeched as she backed away. "_Is this the thanks I get for saving your life?"_

Nabiki started to catch her breath again, quickly trying to form the proper English words. "_You could have killed myself as well! What happen if you miss with that shotgun weapon?"_

"_That would never happen, I'm a damn surgeon with this thing!" _She snapped back with a line from a movie Nabiki was familiar with. "_My Brother-in-Law Jeff taught me everything!"_

Nabiki almost opened her mouth to reply, but something made her hold her tongue. Perhaps it was her Lizard Brain again, acting in self-preservation, or her rationale coming back to the fore. The pause allowed Mercy to regain her feet and the two girls to let their tempers cool a little.

Nabiki was the first to break the silence. "_Sorry…that…that monster looked like someone I did know before_."

"_Ah_,"Mercy replied nodding in understanding. "_That's happened to me too. God this place gets to you doesn't it?"_ She chuckled, almost vapidly in a way that rubbed Nabiki the wrong way, "_Man, I feel like I'm one step away from going insane. Anyway I did owe you one for the bump on the head earlier. Oh, by the way, here_." She tossed Nabiki two boxes of bullets. "_My gun jammed up and broke, so they're no good to me_."

"_Thank you_." Nabiki said taking the ammo. She didn't mean to be so curt, with the need for conversation eating away at her, but each and every time she looked at that girl the bile just rose in her mouth. Somehow that woman had found time to do her makeup, as there was a fresh layer of lip-gloss and eyeliner on her face. Hell, she didn't even look like she had a scratch on her, and she had changed her shirt. Even now she was primping herself up in the reflection of a store's glass window. The more Nabiki saw of her, the more there was to find that she didn't like about her. The unnerving thing, she felt a slight pang of hypocrisy from her thoughts.

After a moment Mercy sighed, turned away from the glass, and looked up at Nabiki. "_We even?"_

Nabiki just winced at the thought of being 'even' with this woman. As if you could put a cost on things like ethics, or humanity. Lord she hated this wretched woman; she always seemed to have to put a definitive value on everything. Not to mention all those irritating little things about Americans that she hated, the perfect teeth, the obsession with appearance, and lets not forget all of the things she said. Who could stand a person like that? But putting aside her bile for a moment she nodded regaining her composure.

"Hai… _yes_."

Mercy nodded and walked away into the darkness, moving further into the malformed town. Nabiki scowled, sighed, and then finally collapsed against a wall of a building. She didn't want to look at what kind, especially if there was a reflective surface on it. It wasn't home to something trying to kill her and that was enough.

She could see the restaurant, looking perversely normal amid the hellish landscape, a half a block away even through the all prevailing darkness. With it being such a short distance away, she figured if something appeared she could make a break for it. The truth of that statement was questionable, but gods be willing, there would be no need to test it.

Nabiki hurt all over, physically and emotionally. Her watch had gotten broken sometime between the clinic and now, so she had no idea how long she had been there. What was weird was that she didn't feel hungry or thirsty, and as much as her wounds ached she didn't feel exhausted. Her duffle bag however, seemed so heavy now. Stopping for a second she decided to lighten her load a bit.

She wasn't fully thinking of the potential consequences as she unloaded much of the bag's weight; away went the water bottles, the second change of clothes, the half-full box of protein bars, and anything else she felt she didn't need. The only things she kept were her weapons, the gun, the first aid supplies she had lifted leaving the hospital, the bullets Mercy had given to her, the picture of the two people, the notes and testimonials of Mr. Burlew, and the storybook with the pages she had collected.

She was about to move on when she caught something out of her eye. That design with the circles had been recreated on one of Burlew's pages! She started to read it, desperate for any new information.

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_ The cult of Silent Hill, known as 'The Order', uses this symbol to show their faith. It is known as the 'Halo of the Sun' the two outer circles represent charity and resurrection. The three inner circles arranged in a triangle represent the past, present, and future. The parallels of this to the Holy Trinity are obvious, and most likely the result of the original cult reinterpreting Judeo-Christian elements with regards to Western pagan faiths. _

_ The symbol is drawn in red, sometimes black. However it is NEVER drawn in blue. This reverses the meaning and makes it a curse against the cult's God and a heresy. This is apparently similar to an upside down crucifix. DO NOT think that a blue 'Halo of the Sun' will form any kind of protection. The red or black one calls for help from the cult's God, I shudder to think what might emerge if you call for its Devil. _

_ Of the three sects within the cult the Sacred Ladies sect does have a ritual that uses the heretical 'Halo of the Sun.' It is a cleansing ritual that has only been performed once, said to be used to first purify the land around the lake. The heretical halos appear 'To mark the lairs of the sinful, so they might be found and purged.' _

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The treatise went into details about other rituals that either had to do with 'Grand Executioners', numbered people, reeds and snakes, or some twice-dead Madonna. Nabiki looked but couldn't find anything else on the 'Cleansing' ritual.

Sighing she packed the notes away again and walked the last half block to the Lucky Jade Restaurant. She was not surprised at all to see, painted on the door, the heretical Halo of the Sun. The Eye of God staring back at her from its position at the top of it.

Nabiki adjusted her grip on the bat and entered the restaurant.

She sighed and shook her head ruefully. At least now she truly knew what she had been suspecting she had been doing so far.

Descending further into sin.

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Author's Notes: Yay! 50+ reviews! Thank you so much to everyone, especially those of you who have been with this from the beginning. As always many thanks go to WFROSE, for his help. And all commentary is welcome and wanted, be it good or bad.

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Omake!

"Ryoga, look out!" Leon cried out as the boulders came bouncing down the road.

"Get back!" He cried back in his heavily accented English. "And cover Ashley I've got this." And the boy in the yellow and black actually ran towards the boulders that were rolling down the hill.

Leon gaped as the bandana wearing youth charged up and struck the oncoming boulders with just two fingers. He was even more awestruck when the exploded into harmless rubble. Coming to his senses quickly, he picked off the Ganados that had launched the boulder, before they could get more or alert any of the others.

"Man Ryoga, I don't know what we would have done without you!" Ashley chirped happily as she gave the boy a hug. Thankfully they could understand each other well, Ryoga did know some English, Leon was taught Japanese during his training, and Ashley had spent a year in Japan in an educational program.

Ryoga blushed deeply and mumbled some thanks. To be honest he was a little scared of her, not because of what she said with growing within herself and Leon (He didn't understand that part anyway) but rather because Leon had pulled him aside and had explained that if he so much as touched her the wrong way he would be shot dead on the spot with the biggest gun he had in that carrying case. That would have been the thick rod like thing with the bulb at the end.

"So…umm…where are we going now?" Ryoga asked the brown haired agent.

"This way." Leon motioned down the path. "I think we might fi-" Leon began another violent coughing fit spitting out large amounts of mucus and blood. "Crap. It's happening faster. Come on we need to get moving."

The trio ran down the direction that would hopefully lead them to safety and a cure for their condition. As dire as the current situation was his mind kept drifting back to Nabiki. His thoughts were rudely interrupted as a crossbow bolt whizzed past his head. A group of Los Illuminatos members had ambushed them!

"Ashley get down! Ryoga, watch her!" Leon snapped as he fired at the group of Los Illuminatos advancing on him.

Ryoga nodded making sure that Ashley was safe behind him. The message that he was a terror in hand to hand must have gotten around as the only people accosting him were the ones using crossbows. It was getting hard to dodge them and make sure Ashley was safe.

Seeing that Leon would still be a while with his dance partners Ryoga charged forward hurling two of his bandannas at one of the cultists. The man fell down, and Ryoga incapacitated him with a hard kick to his head, knocking him out. Ashley's scream caused him to whip his head around and swear. Three Novaistadors had flown down behind them, and with the cultists as a distraction; one of them had grabbed Ashley.

"Leon! Give me a boost!" He yelled and ran towards the American Agent. Nodding, Leon cupped his hands into a platform, and hoisted up when Ryoga jumped onto it. Leon, Ashley, and the two Illuminatos, watched in fascination as Ryoga lifted into the air, landed on top of one of the metal clawed men, kicked off it hard, sending it crashing to the ground hard, then he kicked the second flying monster in mid air, crashing it into the one holding Ashley, causing it to lose its grip and drop the girl, who was caught in mid air by Ryoga, and land a little inelegantly on the ground on his back.

Leon, and the two remaining cultists gaped. "Madre de Dios…" One of the cultists mumbled. "Est el Diablo!" They both dropped their crossbows and took off looking absolutely terrified. Leon couldn't help but smile and laugh a little.

"Mr. Hibiki." He said helping them both off the ground. "When we get out of this, you are going to have to teach me some of those moves."

"Yes, sir." Ryoga said. "Ashley, are you aright? I didn't hurt you or any th-"

Ryoga was cut off as Ashley kissed the boy on the mouth in gratitude. Ryoga responded in the way that he always did when in situations like this. He passed out cold.

After reviving Ryoga the trio resumed their quest to stop Saddler and escape. They had arrived at a point overlooking what looked to be part of a foundry. A huge steel door set in the middle of a steel floor, it was far too quiet for comfort, and no sign. "Ashley you stay here. This looks like another set up." Leon said motioning for her to hide.

"Leon?" Ryoga asked as the two men made their way down.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know of a place in America called Silent Hill?"

Leon stopped and turned to look at his companion. "Why are you asking that?"

Ryoga shrugged in reply, "Someone I know is… there."

"Silent Hill," Leon sighed. "I've never been there, I've just heard stories. I really hope your friend is okay. If so much as half of what I heard is true…" He trailed off, his focus shifting.

"What have you heard?" Ryoga asked a creeping horror crawling up within him. Leon opened his mouth to respond when suddenly another noise was brought to their attention. A dull booming thud came to their ears, and then another and another with some form of regularity. Leon's eyes narrowed and he hissed out a word.

"Gigante." He held his hand up and motioned for silence. The booming thuds continued but the regular rhythm had gone, now was some strange set of pounding, like someone dropping multiple heavy burdens at once or…

"Two pairs of feet…oh God, there's two of them coming." Leon turned to Ryoga. "Go back to Ashley, keep her safe. Do not leave her side." He said turning to the location where the sound was coming from. Ryoga started to head back where they had left Ashley in a, hopefully, secure spot.

An inhuman roar behind him made Ryoga turn around. He couldn't believe what he saw. Two enormous monsters that looked as if they had walked off a set for some fantasy movie were attacking Leon. He almost spun on his heel to go help him when he saw the American trigger a trapdoor, plunging one into certain death, and was dealing with the other one quite well. Ryoga returned to his task to rejoining Ashley.

He didn't get lost this time…well…he didn't get lost THAT much. About 30 yards off or so, but he did find someone, and it wasn't Ashley. A large imposing man with sunglasses in a military uniform was standing there in front of him.

"Who are you?" Ryoga demanded. "Where's Ashley?"

"Don't worry kid," The man said in excellent, if slightly accented, Japanese. "The girl's safe, and the Boy Scout down there will be back with her soon enough. I didn't come here for her anyway." Ryoga never saw the hand that hit him. It was just too fast, the next thing he knew he was pinned on the ground with the soldier on top of him.

"Sorry kid." The man in the beret said, his face showing nothing but malicious glee. "The boss doesn't want any complications here, and you're about as complicated as it gets." He took out a rather large and wicked looking knife. "You are good though, so out of respect, I'll try make this as quick as possi-"

"NO!" Ryoga kneed the man in the stomach as hard as he could. A hard grunt and the grip loosened just enough for them to break free.

"Uggh, you little sonova-" The man pulled out a gun and Ryoga again felt his feet respond in the defense mechanism of running as fast as they could. The world seemed to blur as he heard gunshots go off behind him and the screams of those gigantic abominations.

When Ryoga caught his breath he noticed that he didn't hear the shouts of his companions or enemies anymore. "Ashley?" No response. "Agent Kennedy?" Nothing.

He looked around and for a moment felt elation, he was back in Japan! True it was the middle of the night but there was no mistaking the classical building styles. Also, as luck would have it, there was a light in one of the houses. Wonderful! He could get some directions back to Nerima, find out what the hell was going on, and alert the proper authorities to Leon and Miss Graham's plight. Things were starting to finally be looking up.

He knocked on the door softly; looking around he marveled at the pretty red butterflies when he turned back to the door there was a young girl staring at him in fear. Before he could say anything she raised an old camera and took a picture, the flash blinding him momentarily.

"Ah! Why did you DO that?" He yelped staggering back, spots dancing before his eyes.

The young, black haired girl lowered the ancient camera to stare at the boy blinking at the flash. Before Ryoga knew it she was hugging him in relief, sobbing, thanking God that he was alive. After a while she stopped crying and spoke.

"Oh thank God! You have to help me and my sister get out of here!"


	11. Chef

Chef, Recipe and Waiter

Note: Sorry for the long LONG wait. It's mostly due to laziness and…laziness. But to make up for it this one's a big one.

Disclaimer: Konami's Silent Hill and Takahashi's Ranma belong to their respective owners. This is just for fun, please don't sue.

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Nabiki stared at the wall, unable to wrap around the surreal concept within such a surreal world. The interior of the restaurant looked normal as could be; tables, chairs, and booths. It looked disturbingly normal, completely offset by the gaping maw of the black abyss outside the window as the only indication of the hell that the world had turned into.

The only visage to offset the disturbingly normal atmosphere was the wallpaper mural splayed across the wall; the kind put up in order to create a pleasing sight for a very minimal cost. It wasn't of the Great Wall of China, or a pagoda amid a bamboo grove, or any other Chinese scene as Nabiki would have expected of the establishment, it was a scene over looking a vineyard. Long rows of grapes seemed to belong in the middle of some French, Sicilian or Californian valley.

Such an image was out of place, within a Chinese restaurant…

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Tsubasa groaned as he helped Konatsu move the flower display. "Are you sure this is the one she wanted?" He frowned as he looked at the white flowers. "I know she decided to go with a Western theme, a little more to the left, but white flowers?"

Konatsu sneezed in reply. "I know. Also how much pollen do these things have? My allergies are unaccustomed to this."

"I didn't know you had allergies." Tsubasa said wiping his eyes that had just started to tear up again.

"Apparently, I do now." Konatsu sneezed again. "It seems that you have a similar problem…alright that's too much, take a step back. This is making me a bit dizzy."

"Yeah, same here," Tsubasa took a step back and nodded. "Alright, just five more of these things to place…where did she get these flowers anyway?"

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The largest table in the restaurant was a circular one for eight people. A lazy Susan sat on top of it, holding a menu propped upon it for display. As Nabiki cautiously approached, it was slowly rotating, as if someone had just spun the thing a few moments ago. The slow rotating motion caused the shadow against the wall cast by the lone table candle's light against the menu to slowly change and distort; a rather impressive effect, and more than a little eerie.

Nabiki just rolled her eyes, already becoming accustomed to the gothic melodrama surrounding her, and snatched the menu off the table; she was so far beyond simple tricks at this point that she just found images like this to be cliché and tame. Opening the menu she was greeted with the sight of a robust variety of meat, vegetable, pork, and noodle dishes, as well as another page of that storybook she had been collecting to read during her dining pleasure.

There was also another boy and girl in the town 

_He was too smart for his own good_

_She was arrogant, greedy, and stubborn_

_They hated the town, hated God, and tried to hurt her_

_That made everyone very sad._

_Damn the Boy_

_Damn the Girl_

_May they all go to Hell._

Nabiki added these pages to the rest of them, and found a few packets of soy sauce as she attempted to close the menu. She huffed, before moving to put them into the condiments tray on the table, and paused. On a hunch, she moved to the nearest table, and looked at the condiments tray, before moving to another; all the other table set-ups were devoid of soy sauce. There was salt, pepper, sugar, a sugar substitute, that red paste that the Amazons swore nobody in China ever touched, but no soy sauce. No little bottle that was stingy with the portions it handed out, not even the obnoxiously difficult to open plastic packets that were designed to splatter upon any light colored clothing once opened, nothing. It was almost as odd as the Italian vineyard mural on the wall. So, Nabiki decided to pocket the soy sauce packets; maybe the Americans hadn't discovered the soy-based flavor enhancement, and she may get hungry later.

Nabiki moved to leave, before she noticed something else… or rather the lack of something. Where was the siren? Every time she had picked up these pages that awful siren would sound, and she would end up in a nightmare reality facing down some horrible creature. In fact, she almost mentally berated herself for almost subjecting her ears to that torture once again. Well…the fact that she was already in the demented nightmare world may account for that, and if a horrible monster with traits that resembled those that she knew from Nerima didn't want to appear before her then she had absolutely NO issue with that.

The clatter from within the kitchen, the sound of falling pots and pans, brought an abrupt end to the wishful fantasy that she was alone. Nabiki shifted her grip on the baseball bat and pushed through the doors into the kitchen, deciding that it was best to get it before it got her. She entered just in time to see the back door slam closed, causing her to narrow her eyes in irritation; if this thing was out to kill her, the least it could do was not be a coward about it. Rushing up to the door, she tried to open it to chase after whoever just exited through it. As soon as she reached the knob, the sound of a lock sliding into place greeted her, signaling her inability to pursue.

Nabiki's mind was back to full speed now. This door was the latest obstacle in her way; question was how to open it. Answer came easy enough, there was a complete fire safety kit attached to the wall in the dining area; they usually came in a glass box with a hose, extinguisher, and a small axe. She sprinted back into the dining room to get the axe. She stopped short the moment she entered and almost slumped in resignment.

"Figures."

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"Hey get up." Tsubasa shook Konatsu's shoulder. "She wants us to change the seating arrangements again, and we have to replace the streamers, and the candles, and she has another four flower arrangements for us to place."

Konatsu nodded. "Of course. Forgive me for dozing off. Come on, let's go."

Tsubasa groaned, as they headed to the renovated dojo/chapel. "You know, the Americans joke about the Bridezilla…but this is just ridiculous!"

"This is Akane's special day, and you can't say no to her, can you?"

Tsubasa sighed. "No. I just don't see why we have to put in so many of those damn flowers."

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The Chinese restaurant's decor of soft pastel colors and grey carpet had been updated to Silent Hill's far more popular steel, rust, and blood motif. The floor looked like a writhing scab, with a layer of…something…spread on top of the floor, complimented by the dark splotches and lumps moving along it. The furniture had been converted into uncomfortable looking mangled lumps of metal and wood.

Ceiling fans hung down by a single thin metal pole, the fan itself a slow, lopsidedly spinning collection of irregular and jagged metal blades. The fans that were working more avidly were spinning at an insane speed, making a horrid clacking and screeching sound as they moved back and forth to the motion. That caused the weak light coming from some unseen source from above to throb and flicker.

The damn mural was still there, only this time instead of a peaceful vineyard the scene looked out onto the field of Golgotha. Only instead of Romans, criminals, and other historical figures being crucified within the thorny thickets of rotting grapes, there were much more disturbingly familiar images draped in agony before her eyes.

In other words, just another typical setting for Silent Hill.

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"I can't believe you overslept!" Tsubasa griped as the two raced towards the Saotome residence. "You of all people!"

"I apologize, I'm sorry!" Konatsu said, making a full apologetic bow the same time he was running. "She just had me working late last night, and I was so tired. I'm sorry! This will never happen again."

Tsubasa shook his head in annoyance. "Let's just get there already, maybe we can still make it in time.

The two cross-dressers arrived just in time to miss getting trampled by the exiting crowd. The dojo was empty, save the disturbing masses of pulped flesh that greeted the eyes. The smell of blood was in the air, Mingling with the whimpers and pained mews of those unable to flee on their own accord.

"W-wh-what the world happened here!" Tsubasa demanded, checking Cologne's pulse, and recoiling way in horror.

Konatsu shook his head as he took out the cell phone Ukyo supplied him. "I'm calling an ambulance."

Tsubasa nodded as he carefully pulled Shampoo and Mousse up to the wall. They had both finally passed out from the extent of their agony. "It must have been a rival or a retaliation or something. Have you found anyone else?"

"No…oh GODS AND HEAVENS!" Konatsu jumped away knocking over the decorative urn he was looking in. The putrid liquid that came pouring out was hard to identify, but the malformed head with the bras stuffed into the mouth, nose, and eye sockets that had been floating in the gelatinous fluid wasn't. "What madness is this!"

"Hey, Konatsu! C'mere!" Tsubasa said standing over Nabiki's form. "She's just passed out. Help me move her, she might be able to explain what happened."

Konatsu nodded and breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the ambulance approach, realizing someone had already made the call. He shook his head, as he helped his friend and rival for Ukyo's affections carry the middle Tendou girl outside. "I hope Ukyo's okay."

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In the center of the room resided an open grill, a flat smooth steel finish grill showing its use, abuse, and wear by the stains, the cracks, the part where it had been mended it after Ranma threw Ryoga into it…or was it when Ryoga threw Ranma into it? Either way, for one who was careful of noticing and recalling detail, the grill's origin was disturbingly obvious.

Nabiki focused from the grill to what she had just noticed behind it. Its hair undone and hanging limply over the majority of its face, while every inch of It was covered with filth and grime, and wore a joyless characterization of a greeting smile that shown from under the grungy mop of hair like a waxing moon. That accursed smile that taunted her, mocked her, accused her, and bred within her distress. It wasn't the visual, horrifying as it was, but rather what it represented; pure unadulterated malice and hate, and even worse every ounce of it directed at her.

Nabiki took a few cautious steps towards the thing, her bat raised in a defensive position. Images of spatulas cutting through the air, buckets full of hot oil, exploding batter, and elastic noodles all came to mind as she considered possible attacks this thing could unleash.

As she got closer, she could see how it seemed to be growing out of the floor and the grill from the waist. Muscle sinew and scab encrusted skin tangled and merged with gas pipes and bits of metal that somewhere became pulsing veins; all of it writhing, hissing, and undulating within itself.

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The next day the horrid scene at the Amazon's restaurant was discovered, the Kuno estate had grown eerily quiet, inexplicable suicides or murders throughout the town began to occur, and our two rather frazzled cross dressers collided into each other in front of the restaurant of the object of their affections.

"Where have you been?" They both blinked, before speaking again

"I was at the airport getting tickets!"

"Tickets?" Konatsu and Tsubasa paused, before continuing

"To get me and Ukyo out of here!"

"What makes you think she's going with you?"

"She's gonna come with me!" They both finished, pointing their fingers at their respective persons, before both growled at one another.

"STOP DOING THAT!"

The sound of a familiar voice singing softly stopped their stereophonic argument, as they both entered the restaurant. "Ukyo?" Konatsu tentatively enquired, before he coughed and fanned the air; thick with the stench of something burning. Before Konatsu could fully register the situation… "FIRE!" Tsubasa cried. They both looked at each other and charged inside with a single cry.

"UKYO!"

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"Ukyo?" Nabiki hazarded to speak to the creature, hoping that it would be as benevolent as Tofu and Hinako; it didn't seem likely, but one could hope. Slowly, the creature began moving its arms. The motions were fluid, practiced… a familiar sight. The monster simply began to make okonomiyaki as if it were its only lot in life.

Nabiki blinked in confusion. Her mouth opened slightly in relative awe, as the thing flipped it over and began to work on the next one. Lazily, its head snapped up and looked directly at Nabiki.

"Silent Hill specials are hard to make, Sugar." She spoke in a voice that sounded like it was under a terrific effort to do so, like the weight of the ocean was crushing its esophagus. "First, you need a person who's given into the teachings of the Order." The first okonomiyaki had begun to smoke, as its perfectly browned edges began to char. Ukyo ignored it, flipped the second one effortlessly, and started with a third.

She continued on her speech that horrible smile on her face faltering a little. "Then you must prepare and combine the other necessary ingredients; sinners, sacrifices, and vessels, before sprinkling liberally with White Claudia."

The smoke was getting a little worse, as the awful smell of char started to form when the first okonomyiaki had turned into a burnt husk. Still, Ukyo kept talking as she continued to pile on more and more batter onto the grill. Her hands moved faster and faster, as the demonized chef's smile was replaced by a look of panicked concern.

"Sadly, the first part of your preparations are but a sacrifice, made only necessary for your Final Vessel. Now this is the most important part mind you, fill this vessel with generous amounts of violence, hate, pain, and transfer the sins of all others into your vessel. Then when she can take in no more, when she has no memory but hate, sin, and pain…" The mass on the grill had actually lit on fire in a few areas, while the smoke that reached Nabiki stung her eyes and throat. She forced herself to ignore the irritation, concentrating on Ukyo's speech, and the expression of pain on her face from the effort to speak.

"After you get your base ready, prepared all of your rituals and sacrifices, and have your vessel prepared. Then…to turn ANY dish you want into a Silent Hill Special…all you have to do…" The creature's smile returned, "…is to kill your vessel."

A loud sharp CRACK echoed through the room, and the thing pitched her head forward so far to actually touch the burning mass on the grill. A soft sizzling noise reached Nabiki's ears, and then the monster raised its face again. Dripping with batter, red with burns the smile that had returned, it continued adding to the burning mess piled on the grill. Internally Nabiki sighed in resignation and despair, like Tofu, Hinako, and the rest, any humanity within the creature before her had been taken away. Even if Ukyo was not much more than an associate, it hurt her to see the once ever-cheerful chef destroyed in such a way

With grim determination, Nabiki cocked her gun and readied it. "I'm sorry Ukyo." She started to pull back the trigger when she heard a sound that made her lower her weapon and jump to the side.

"CHARRRGE!"

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The worst fires are the ones where you can't see any flames, because the smoke is just too thick to see anything at all. You stumble around in a blind panic as your eyes, nose, and throat all are enflamed with pain from the noxious fumes. The cackling sound of flames devouring everything surrounds you. Occasionally you'll hear something collapse, and you can only pray that whatever it was it wont fall on top of you.

Everything to the touch feels either searing hot or freezing cold; if you put your hand down for one second you may find it's covered in flames when you bring it back up. The flames of course aren't what you really should fear; it's the air itself that becomes your worst enemy. Step in the wrong spot or turn your face the wrong way and you can be hit by a burst of hot air with a temperature capable of flash-frying flesh, painfully stripping your face of your familial likeness. It's not simply the flames that cause a fiery inferno but the invisible enemy that truly makes it Hell.

This is what Tsubasa and Konatsu were facing. Thankfully they were doing generally intelligent things, yet ignoring that the smartest thing to do would be to run out of the restaurant as fast as humanly possible. They were crawling along the floor, pieces of cloth over their faces as Konatsu's kunoichi training dictated. They both wore protective eyewear from Tsubasa's disguise kit, and had one of those tinfoil-looking fire resistant tarps over their heads.

They slowly crawled toward the sound of Ukyo's singing, the main grill in the center of the room. The awful burning smell became overwhelming, as the stench of multiple horrid burning odors mingled. They reached the grill and carefully stood up, intent on rescuing Ukyo and escaping.

Ukyo was standing behind her grill, softly and blissfully singing a cheery pop tune that had been playing on the radio over the past few days. She was doing the same thing she had been doing every day, almost mechanically making okonomiyaki. Only, after she poured on the batter and flipped it over, she would just leave it there and start a new one. This had been apparently been going on for hours on end, the entire grill was a baked on mess. With a simple smile on her face, as if nothing was wrong in the world, Ukyo remained oblivious to what was happening.

The two looked at each other and had a silent, fast, conversation on what they should do. One game of janken later Konatsu sprinted to the exit to clear a path and Tsubasa charged at Ukyo, trying to knock her out of the trance she seemed to be in.

It was a rather good plan, would have worked as well, save for the flames reaching the main gas line in the back. Konatsu fell outside and he turned around to watch the restaurant that he, his rival, and his beloved made together collapse into a fiery pile of rubble. The Kunoichi dropped to his knees, all the feeling and emotion within him suddenly crushed to death.

There was no chance of anyone surviving by the time fire department finally arrived. No one paid any notice to the young boy as they rushed to contain the flames, and only after they had finished extinguishing the blaze and retrieving the corpses that they realized that he hadn't moved from that spot since they arrived, even though there was a large chunk of wood shrapnel embedded in his shoulder.

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A huge figure rose up from beneath the scabby floor like a giant tumor growing from flesh. The thing then ran at Nabiki, proclaiming its charge as it did so. Nabiki managed to jump out of the way, and watched the tumor sink back into the floor like a deflating balloon. She took a few steps back when the smoke began to make her cough. It was getting harder and harder to see as time went on, telling her of the precious moments she had to survive this ordeal.

Not wanting to waste any time, she took aim at the monster behind the grill and fired. It was a dead on perfect shot. Only the tumor thing rose up out of the floor like a jack in the box and blocked the bullet. Then it sank back into the floor, seemingly unharmed. The monster behind the grill kept on piling on the batter, meat, and vegetables. The smoke was starting to get really thick at this point and the flames had actually started to creep down the sides of the grill, licking at the floor like hungry beasts tasting a new type of morsel.

Recalling her second grade fire safety lecture Nabiki dropped to the floor where the air was a bit clearer, giving her more time. Nabiki closed her eyes and came up with a plan. Grabbing a long piece of jagged metal that could have been pipe or a chair leg, she got her gun ready again. After whispering a silent three count, she sprinted for the thing behind the grill. As expected, the tumor monster arose again to protect his beloved. Nabiki wasted no time, and slammed the metal pole, point down, into the thing's shoulder and out the other side pinning it to the ground. Still running she took two more steps to get a clear shot, on the last step the tumor thing grabbed her ankle sending her body and her aim sprawling, and jarring her hand to discharge the gun.

The wild shot hit the support of the fan that was above the grill. That caused a minor tear in the wire support, the spinning motion causing the tear to enlarge rapidly. The fan's predicament did not escape Nabiki's notice, and from her prone position, fired several more shots into the fan's support.

With a loud snap, the fan broke away from the wires and began to descend downwards, still spinning. The fan made three prefect slices, one across the things face, another across the neck, and the last one across the thing's torso. It was strange, Nabiki thought, how she didn't scream even when all that blood was cascading down her body and into her culinary creation. Well, maybe since it was a monster it didn't feel pain.

Just like she was feeling right now, being that her hair was on fire.

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Konatsu was committed into the Nerima Ward. However he wasn't restrained or treated, in fact he was given free reign of the ward. He would help take care of everyone there. Changing bedspreads and bedpans, cooking and serving meals, anything that needed to be done, he did. His skills allowed him to do the work of multiple orderlies, and he soon became a favorite of the staff. As long as he was there they didn't have to deal with the Nermia patients.

It was only after he collapsed after the fifth week they realized that he hadn't been sleeping, also he had barely eaten anything and was drinking as little as possible. The staff tried to sedate him and get him on an intravenous feed, but Konatsu would have none of that. It took six men to hold him down so he could be sedated; all the while the boy was saying the same thing over and over;

"I can't sleep! I can't eat! I CAN'T! SHE HASN'T SAID I COULD YET! UKYO HAS NOT SAID I CAN!"

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As Nabiki rapidly patted out her head, the mutilated creature collapsed, face down into the sticky, burning mess in front of it. A small sucking noise was present as it slowly sank into the mass of batter; it was replaced by the sound of something sizzling. The mobile tumor in the floor slowly sank back into the flat surface, its shoulders shuddering as if it were crying. Now all she had to do now was escape from the restaurant before she was burned alive.

Leaving the way she came in was out; fiery debris blocked that path completely. She returned to the kitchen, and immediately swore. She had forgotten to grab the fire ax! The door to the back entrance was still firmly locked and no amount of physical force from her small frame could get it to open. The smoke was starting to get a little thick in the room as well, and she could see the flames inching closer from the windows in the kitchen door. Her attention was diverted by the sound of something collapsing in the room she had just left, some debris landed in just the right position to hold open the kitchen door, allowing the smoke to pour in.

This was very very bad. Nabiki scanned the room again looking for anything she could use. There were no windows, nothing that could help her get the damn door open, her eyes then rested on the heavy steel door to the walk in freezer. It was slightly open. Thanking providence (whatever was left of it here) for the lucky break, she pulled open the door with a grunt, jumped inside the cool room, and shut the door behind her. It was only until three seconds after she heard the door click shut that she realized that there was no way out of the freezer.

"Great…now I can freeze to death." Nabiki muttered to herself. She walked around the large meat freezer. Huge slabs of meat hung from hooks, she noted the bloodstains on the floor and walls along with what looked like evidence of a shootout, as there were numerous bullet holes in the walls. Nabiki marked it down again as par for course for here.

Nabiki did a double take as something caught her eye. Pinned to one of the beef flanks was a postcard from Nerima. One side had a lovely panoramic view from the city, before everything went to hell. The other was addressed to some residence within the town. It was in English but, as with most learned foreign languages, reading it was a bit easier that speaking and translating spoken words.

_Dear Sister Claudia,_

_Hello from the Land of the Rising Sun! The plane ride was unbearable, but it has paid off in spades. The land of my roots is truly beautiful. The town, in which I am staying in, Nerima, is a wonderful place. Not too 'classical' like Osaka, and not overly modernized like the rest of Tokyo. In a lot of ways Nerima reminds me of the paradise of Silent Hill._

_Anyway, I am here to do God's work, not write a travelogue, thank Father Vincent for the White Claudia seeds, the climate is perfect here to cultivate them. God be praised. I hope to find many converts here, best of luck to your endeavors to find the Holy Mother. Give everyone my best._

_God's Humble Missionary_

_Brother Gregory Itori_

"A missionary?" Nabiki said awestruck. "You mean that they're actually trying to make MORE places like THIS!" She said a look of disgust and horror on her face. Her mind drifted back to Burlew and his 'demonic tentacles' she though it was nothing more than a dramatic flourish the first time she read his description, now she felt it was woefully inadequate.

CLICK! The sound caused her to start as a part of one of the walls swung out just a little with the accompanying sound. Nabiki approached and gave that section of the wall a little push. The door in the wall swung open revealing a long, nondescript, hallway. Her feeble little pocket light could only penetrate so far into the darkness.

As Nabiki stepped out of the freezer, she wasn't thinking about any possible dangers or anything else, as she decided even facing the unknown was better than certain death.

Still she couldn't help but wonder, why would anyone make a secret door in the side of a meat locker? In fact how could this even physically exist? The restaurant wasn't this big, she hadn't gone underground, out of all of the things she had seen this made the least sense and disturbed her the most. The rules of physical reality had seemed to have surrendered to Silent Hill. She doubted she was even in Silent Hill anymore, as she walked down the hall, she doubted she was on Earth at this point. She wasn't really anywhere any more, she figured after a moment, not Silent Hill, not Nerima, not Earth, certainly not Heaven, and, even as bad as things were, not Hell.

She was in Nowhere.

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Author's Notes: That wallpaper mural is actually in my hometown's Chinese restaurant by the way. Thanks to WFROSE and all reviews are welcome, as per usual. Well, you guys seemed to like my Ryoga omake so much, that you asked for more, alright here you go! FEEL THE PAIN!

Proofer's Notes: Sorry I took so long proofing this myself, it's been a hectic… year for me, and it's only gotten worse this started fall. Anyhow, now that I'm done with this, it's time for me to go write my annual Halloween fic (Akane's turn this time )

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The corridor to the Hellish Abyss was silent; Yae and Sae had already been taken down to complete the ritual. The mourners silently patrolled the corridor, making sure that there would be no more interruptions or delay. Yes, nothing could stop the crimson sacrifice now.

Five inches above the head of the mourner, desperately holding onto the cracks in the rock ceiling, holding the camera obscura in his teeth, Ryoga Hibiki slowly crawled down the corridor. One could only wonder what would be going through his mind. What focus it must take to perform such an amazing feat, yes this is a true testament to his discipline and focus.

"_Oh God please don't let me fall…. please don't let me fall…why wont my pants dry, can they smell me? Please don't let me fall…don't make a sound…please don't let me fall…I think I was better off with the giant monster and the guy in the beret…please God, Amatseru, Buddha, Zeus, ANYONE please don't let me fall!"_

Finally, after a long, long climb/crawl along the ceiling roof he reached the end. All the while cursing himself for being careless enough to let both of the twins get captured; cursing All God's Village for existing; cursing every last one of these damn ghosts; cursing Mio, Mayu; cursing the camera; and finally cursing Ranma for…well…because!

It was a large circular room with what looked like hundreds of candles, in the center there were two ghosts throttling each other. Ryoga raised the camera, preparing to send these spirits to the great beyond. The two longhaired ghosts turned to face him. "Why do you kill?"

"BECAUSE YOU WON'T STOP SAYING THAT!" Click.

Unfortunately Ryoga's little vocal catharsis to his worries and anxiety (Some would call it a mild mental break down…hey his pants stayed dry this time at least.) caused him to not notice the ghost that materialized behind him. He turned around slowly to stare face to face with the most horrid creature he had seen yet. White haired, with a mouth open wide in an unearthly scream of pain, a horrid spirit of anguish, the Kusabi. Ryoga had just enough time to open his mouth in shock before the Kusabi plunged its hand into his chest.

The touch of the Kusabi is fatal, as all the pain the Kusabi experienced in its creation is experienced by the victim. Upon that horrible images of death from all the other Crimson Sacrifices are played in the mind over and over again. The result is that, while there is no physical harm, the victim's mind just shuts down, overloaded by all the perceived pain and the horrid images. Blood spurts out from the nose, the heart stops, people go into insane murderous fits, suicides, and other horrid fates await those who suffer from the touch of the Kusabi.

However, the Kusabi had never met anyone one like Ryoga Hibiki, he didn't die, lose his mind or the will to live. He just became depressed.

Really, really, REALLY depressed.

Sae smiled as she watched her sister approach her timidly. All pretenses had been forgotten, the veiled priests banging their staves in preparation, the sacrifice finally would be completed. They would finally be together…forever.

The explosion behind them, however, changed the situation a little. Sae and Mio watched in confused awe as the Kusabi was hurled into their room. It looked like it had been physically pummeled, more so that it was already. In fact it was actually crawling TOWARDS the Hellish Abyss, as if to escape what was coming after it.

"And all this time I thought it had been Ranma that had shown me Hell" A voice calmly stated from beyond the room, "…then I thought it was Agent Kennedy…but now I can say that YOU have shown me Hell…LITERALLY!" The angry, almost growling proclamations came from the sickly green glowing boy walking into the room, the camera obscura clenched in his hand tightly.

Sae backed away in fear. "You can't be real! You're a…a…a monster…a DEMON!"

"Ryoga!" Mio yelled. "Use the camera!"

Ryoga nodded, quickly aimed the camera, and pressed the button. Nothing happened. He pressed it again and again in desperation. Still nothing!

"Ryoga…you need to put film in it." Mio said tossing him her satchel with the film packets within. Ryoga desperately tried to load the camera, his panic making his fingers clumsy. Sae started to laugh as she approached the boy, the red mist starting to appear around her.

Desperately Ryoga grabbed a small sphere, pulled out the pin inside it and hurled it into the air above the Hellish Abyss. Sae paused for a moment curious as to what would happen. The only thing it did was pop loudly and now the air was filled with these little specks of sparkly dust. She smiled the boy returned to his scramble to load film into the camera. As if it would do any good. She was really going to enjoy hurting him.

Ryoga just smiled as he raised the camera and pressed the shutter button.

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"Alright, I know you dislike guns and that's okay. You apparently don't need them." Leon said handing three egg shaped objects to Ryoga. "But you may need these just in case you need to make a quick get away." Leon shrugged, and smirked, "or if someone shoots a rocket at you."

"Thank you Agent Kennedy."

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The flash went off, and the world seemed to explode with light. The chaff from the grenade bounced the light off each and every one of the tiny flakes of metal. The world seemed to be caught in the midst of a huge strobe light. The scream from Sae was more than satisfying; the Kusabi let out another bellow of pain and writhed on the ground. The veiled priests vanished, hands over their faces as the rapidly faded from this existence. The Hellish Abyss itself seemed to react to the light; a presence of malevolence that had been in the air suddenly grew weaker.

"MAYU!" Mio cried out in fear. Ryoga looked and swore. The poor girl was standing on the edge of the Abyss, and (if Ryoga knew how these things worked and he was pretty sure he did) any minute the tunnel would start to collapse. What was worse was that Mio was running towards the Hell pit, intent on rescuing her sister.

"No! Stay back!" Ryoga cried pushing Mio away as he ran towards the girl. Before he reached her he pulled down his bandana over his eyes, remembering that one should NEVER look into the Hellish Abyss. He grabbed Mayu's shoulders and pushed her away from the edge and towards her sister.

"GO! RUN! DON'T LOOK BAAAAAAAAGH!" he cried as the ground started to shake.

"RYOGA!" Both girls cried out as they watched the martial artist fall into the yawning maw of the unending depth. Another hard tremor made them momentarily forget the loss of their friend and focus on their own plight. By a miracle they were able to both escape out into the woods, and were found by the search party that had been sent to look for them.

Ryoga was falling…he had been falling for a long time; he was also falling in darkness. Well…actually it was in yellow and back but he didn't dare open his eyes or touch the bandanna around them. Suddenly he felt a strange shift, as if something had pulled him in a different direction that he never knew existed. The next thing he felt was the wind whistling by him fast and a feeling of warmth.

Taking a chance he took off his blindfold to see a blue sky and a sun above him…and the ground rushing up to meet him very VERY fast. Then he was back to darkness for a while.

Ryoga was awakened by the sensation of being forcibly shaken into that state. The next thing he knew two armored men on horseback had pulled him to his feet placed him in stocks and chains and were now force-marching him.

"Hey. You don't look like the rest of these Neanderthals." The man behind him said in English, Ryoga tried to turn and look at him, but his bonds and the annoying whips of his current captors prevented him from facing the man behind him.

"No. I am not from where this am is. Ah gomen, my English is not fluent."

"Nah nah, it's fine chief. So how'd you get here?"

"Fell down giant black pit to Hell. How you arrive here?"

"Sucked into a magical Hell portal. Guess we're in similar binds. Can you fight?"

"Oh yes! A martial artist, good one!"

The man behind him chuckled. "Groovy."


	12. Ice Queen

Ice Queen

Disclaimer: Konami has Silent Hill, Takahashi has Ranma. I got squat.

Note: This is my favorite chapter, for those of you who wish to run, too bad, the doors are now barred.

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The hall was dirty and grimy in a different way from the rest of the nightmare of a town. The floor was covered with frost, dirt, water, leaves, and dark stains that conjured up grim visualizations of their origins. The ceiling seemed not to exist; just an open black void above her that threatened to swallow her up if she stared into it for too long; yet still the claustrophobic feeling remained as if there was an above barrier slowly lowering upon her. The walls had pale faded wallpaper covering them, reminding Nabiki much of a derelict home of centuries old. Strips of it were peeling away, even possibly clawed off, like someone desperately tore at the walls in a vain attempt to escape. The wood behind the paper was something that felt too hard, brittle, and coarse, as if it could splinter into Nabiki's flesh just by touching it. The smell of immolated flesh and hair remained still a fresh scent her nose, even though she felt she had been walking down this corridor for an eternity. She wanted to gag and wretch, but other agonies remained precedent upon her.

She wanted to lie on the ground, curl up into a sobbing ball, begging for whatever gods existed to end this nightmare. She wanted to put her gun in her mouth and pull the trigger, embracing the unknown to escape the known hell that held her captive. She wanted to gnash her teeth, scream in fury, claw at the walls, leaving her own marks of madness, and rip this horrid place apart brick by brick. She wanted to give in to every last primal urge and emotion she had right now to cater to the thundering beat dictated by her pounding heart.

But no, she couldn't, not yet.

If there were people alive here she would try her damnedest get them out; they were important to her too. Names that silently moved her mouth and tongue without her realizing it, pictures of faces that flickered in her mind's eye like a slide show, smiling and laughing precariously like they didn't know their final fates. A whole town of faces and names and descriptions likes and dislikes; she idly though of how much money they owed her accumulated to take her mind off her despair. The entire history of the place that she had grown up in, from her history lessons of Nerima being a simple horsing district, to its current commerce and community. She realized she was beginning to have difficulties fitting any of it back together; she couldn't remember what the name of that Chinese girl with the bike was, nor could she place the face to the name Tatewaki Kuno. The only thing that stayed the same was the image of her town and it's name. Nerima.

And that was why she refused to give in. That was why she had to push all of that fear, anger, and everything else as far away as she could; why she refused to succumb to the madness that beckoned her like a soft, dim glowing light in the dark. Call up that facade of ice, that constantly sarcastic and cynical voice of contempt, the professional manner that had gotten her through so much. Let the madness stay bottled up, put away, and wait until she had that bitch in the veil's throat in her hands. Then she could vent her frustrations… in full.

But not yet, a hysterical Nabiki Tendou would be a failure to everyone.

It took her utmost will to convince herself that that was her name.

The hall ended abruptly, as if the end just appeared before her, at a wall with a glass door in it. There was an OPEN sign placed on it and a list of business hours, almost as if in mirth and mockery of her predicament; if she had checked her watch, she would have found she had a full five minutes before hours ended. Having no other option but to turn back, Nabiki pushed open the door; an electronic chime rang out as she broke the light sensor, the cheery, welcoming noise jolting her.

The room was a dramatic change from everything else she had seen in this place so far. It was a beauty salon. What was more was that it was a pristine beauty salon. Every surface, every item, even the air itself, seemed to be clean and fresh and ready for patrons. The fluorescent lights on the ceiling, in perfect working order, gave everything a shimmering flourish. There were tables for manicures, covered with polishes in all kinds of colors and shades, big black chairs with the hair dryers attached to their backs, mirrors on every wall showing her haggard form at every angle, and two rows of a blueish-green colored barber chairs.

Nabiki wrinkled her nose, as she spied sitting in one of the chairs was a familiar, if unwanted, face.

Mercy was sitting in one of the chairs. Idly tossing a bottle of pink liquid soap from one hand to another. "Hiya Naoko."

"It's Nabiki." She replied with a quiet, tired, and raspy voice. She couldn't even look at her directly, just standing by her made her fists clench involuntarily.

"You look tense…am I upsetting you?" Mercy asked, giving Nabiki a concerned look in the reflection of the mirror before them

Nabiki took a deep breath making the decision to just ignore her and keep her mindset goal-oriented. The goal being to get the hell out of here and away from her "No... no…it is just…how did you arrive here?"

"Same as you did probably, walked through a wall and down a creepy hallway."

Nabiki grunted as she scanned the room. There didn't seem to be another way out other than the way she came in. "How did you get in here? Is there other ways out?" She asked, staring at the ceiling trying to decide if she should risk poking around up there.

"There's no way out Nabiki. Believe me I checked." Mercy replied calmly and fluidly as if she knew Nabiki would undoubtedly understand her.

Nabiki sighed in defeat, unconsciously switching back to her native language. "Maybe there's a puzzle or something like in the toy store." Nabiki began to scan the shelves for anything that looked odd, out of place, or missing. "How long have you been stuck here?"

"Longer than I care to say."

Nabiki shook her head; her best attempts to ignore the girl's unpleasant qualities had been in vain. Even the familiar attitude when addressing her was ticking Nabiki off now, something anyone versed in conversational Japanese would…wait a minute, since when did she….

"Mercy-San, Nihongo-o hanamasi-UFFF!" She had turned around just in time to let the heavy, and very solid, bottle of soap smash into her face.

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"You have too many items Miss Tendou."

Nabiki blinked. "What?"

The smiling woman standing behind the cash register repeated herself. "You have too many items. You can't take out this many." The woman in the fancy purple dress smiled as her right eye popped from some sort of strain; whitish fluid and blood dripping down her cheek. She pointed down at the counter, continuing as if nothing was wrong. There was a multitude of small dolls on the counter.

"But…I need to get them all, I need to get them all back home."

"You don't have enough for all of them. I'm sorry." A horrible crack as her left arm snapped under the tension of the muscles surrounding it, causing a large piece of bone to protrude out from the skin. "You have enough for most of them, but not these two." She pointed with her good hand at a ragged torn doll in a green dress filled with coins, and a kung-fu action figure in a tuxedo. At the same time huge gashes seemed to erupt all over her body like incisions made by an invisible serrated blade. "You have enough to buy one."

"Can't we make a deal?" Nabiki enquired, hoping her own business savvy would award her now as it had so many times in the past.

"I'm sorry. My manager is watching." She whispered in an apologetic tone, as she cocked her bleeding mutilated hand at a man in a blue coat covered in blood. He was standing over a man in a white button down shirt. The man on the floor had an axe buried in his skull. "He's very strict."

"Ah." Nabiki nodded. She bit her lip and brought her black veined, blood red hand to her chin. "So what can I buy?"

"Well…you could buy those two if you forego the rest."

"Well, can you give me a moment to get enough?"

"I'm sorry. If you don't make a choice I'll have to sell them to the girl behind you. She has enough to own all of them." she pointed behind Nabiki, just before her arm fell from her shoulder.

Nabiki didn't even have to turn around to know who it was.

"The one time you need money you come up short." The voice said from behind her said tauntingly. "Nabiki, you idiot."

"Well Miss Tendou." The blue-coated manager had taken the woman's place behind the register. "What's worth the most to you?" He said calmly as he shot her in the head with a revolver.

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Her head hurt. Her head hurt a lot.

"Wakey-wakey Nabiki."

"Mmmph…" Nabiki blinked her eyes open, finding herself lying on the floor. Her head was spinning and painfully throbbing. She tried to shake herself back into focus, and only managed to make herself feel sicker. A blurry form bent over her with a condescending posture in its body language.

"Oh stop being a baby," Pure malice in the voice ran like ice water down her spine. "I didn't hit you THAT hard. I guess I'll be nice and let you get your bearings before I get started."

The dizzy blurry world reconstructed itself into recognizable order, and to Nabiki's dismay found that she still hadn't woken up from this nightmare. Looking up at the person standing over her she narrowed her eyes and voiced that niggling notion of suspect that had haunted her since she met Mercy,. "You killed your sister and her husband, didn't you?"

"Cutting to the chase huh?" the woman chuckled in undue mirth, "Heh, why not? I guess I must have lusted after the man my sister loved. Hmm, nooo, maybe that wasn't it… Maybe I'm insane and this is just a fevered hallucination of mine. Maybe this is my entire fault, after being seduced by that missionary and I've been injecting White Claudia into my veins for months. Oh! Or maybe I'm dead, after being slaughtered with everyone else at the wedding and this is my eternal punishment." Mercy sighed, shrugging, "Perhaps I just killed myself one day after all the schemes, layers of distrust, and loneliness compounded upon me."

Nabiki tried to get up off the floor but stopped seeing… something… holding her gun and had it pointed at her. "What are you? Who are you?" Nabiki asked trying, and failing, to hide the fear in her voice.

A crackling noise started to become audible, like the sounds of sun-heated bleached bones snapping from sudden cold. "I'm whatever you wanted me to be Nabiki. I was summoned by that girl to keep you in this town," The creature before Nabiki waved the gun in a lazy sway before the prone woman's chest, before continuing in a sing-song voice, "so she could do whatever it was that she wanted to you."

"So there never was any Mercy?" Nabiki enquired, realizing she had been alone at all fronts. Perhaps Ryoga's appearance wasn't real also.

"Maybe there was once, some blond woman dying in a ditch after being slashed across the stomach. It doesn't matter anymore." Some of her hair was falling out, and replaced by sickly purple and black legions growing on the bare scalp. That crackling sound got even louder now and small crystals started to form at the corners of her mouth. "I'm yours and yours alone now."

"W-what do you mean?" Nabiki regained control of her emotions, though her fear was still potent. She began to slowly position herself, preparing to take any advantage she could gain. She considered the time it would take for the monster before her to react if she were to, hit her arm out of the way. If she could wrest the gun from it then, a single bullet would hopefully end her current adversary. Right now though she just needed the thing to keep talking.

"Now, now, I expected you to be sharper than this, 'master'." The thing's lower jaw had frozen over and the frost continued to spread. It continued, now sounding like there were two voices talking at once and off-sync. "You made me like this Nabiki. I mean, really, do you really think ANY American looks like this? Then again, you were always one for stereotypes."

Nabiki doubted that any human at all looked like she did right now. The frost, or whatever it was, covered her face now, her eyes locked in place in a piercing stare. The cracking sound of forming ice still continued as it crept down the rest of her body, turning her skin a pale sickly blue laden with patches of frostbite. She shank, almost unnoticeably, maybe a few inches, just enough to make her as tall as she was. At the change taking place before her, Nabiki's fear began to grow again, "How? How did I do this?"

"Your power." The thing laughed as Nabiki's puzzled face. "You think you can come into Silent Hill and have it leave no mark you? You may have come here on your own free will, but this town still holds you in its thrall. She would have had the same hold on you, and your power would have been neutralized if she had used more then that photo," Nabiki noted the amount of bile in her voice, and filed that curiosity away for another time.

The monster continued. "Silent Hill is like clay to whoever touches it. Your will distorts God's world as much as theirs does. That's why I became yours, you wanted someone to hate instead of yourself to take away the guilt you felt at your hand in the wedding, you wanted someone to be everything you despised in yourself so that you may lord your better traits over them. And, now because of that you have to die. I won't let you further pervert this place with your will. More importantly though…you want someone to punish you, for all the bad things you've done. I'm sorry to say Miss Nabiki Tendou…"

The things face had completely frozen over taking an icy sheen. Nabiki just shook her head in disbelief. The thing's face was perfectly reflective so that when Nabiki looked at it, she saw her own face, warped and disfigured, staring back at her.

"That you really do hate yourself."

Nabiki lunged for the gun arm. The creature casually stepped to the side and Nabiki went sprawling across the impeccably clean floor. The next sensation Nabiki felt was the creature's foot landing hard on her back and her vision went blurry again. Slowly, in a world of pain, Nabiki managed to pull herself up onto her knees.

CA-CHING! A cheerful sound rang through the store, then the sound of feet approaching her. The feeling of her own pistol, her vision was returning again, against her skull.

"Sit down." The thing's voice sounded like her own now, only a horrible grating crackling sound accompanied it as well. Nabiki obeyed the command. One's options were limited with a gun against your skull. However tears were starting to form in her eyes and it was hard to keep her vision from blurring.

The thing then threw a mass of dollar bills in Nabiki's lap. That sound earlier had to have been the register. She picked up a few bills and glared at the creature. The thing pushed the barrel against her skull a little harder. "Stuff them in." It said in the same crackling voice.

Nabiki almost grinned. So this is what was going to happen? Humiliate and torture the Greedy One by choking them with money? How cliché. She slowly put one of the dollar bills in her mouth giving the creature a look of pure hatred. She wanted to make this last as long as possible, it was humiliating but she could endure, it gave her the time she needed to make a plan.

Getting pistol whipped by the creature sharply derailed her train of thought. "Not that hole you little bitch." The thing with the frozen face said. "The other one." She motioned with the gun.

Nabiki's eye slowly widened as the color drained from her face. "No…please…"

"Everyone knows that Nabiki Tendou only loves money."

Nabiki choked back a sob as she grabbed a handful of the bills and began. Nabiki made a small grunting noise and winced. Her mouth clamped tight.

"Oh, now none of that…" The monster said amused throwing another wad of cash at her. "Let's her some vocalization…in fact…say his name."

She shook her head. She received another slap across the face, now she knew for certain her lip was split. The dark red blood dripping down her chin, she could suck in on her teeth and taste the sticky salty fluid go down her throat.

"Say his name you whore. Say the name that makes your heart flutter a little."

A soft murmur.

Another slap. "LOUDER!"

"…rnma…"

Another slap. "SCREAM IT, " The thing shrieked. "THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED RIGHT! LOVE AND MONEY AND POWER….NOW SAY HIS NAME!"

"RANMA!" Nabiki threw her head back, her eyes rolled skyward back into her skull.

A long quiet pause…then Nabiki slowly curled up into a ball and started to weep.

The thing just smiled as it looked at the quivering mass.

"Was it good for you too?"

Nabiki leapt up and with a near feral snarl charged at the creature.

"Please." The monster calmly kicked Nabiki hard in the chest and she literally flew back across the salon floor. She crashed hard into the jukebox and it started up. The muted whirring as the CD was lifted into place and put upon the turntable. Then, at a deafening volume that seemed to make the items on the shelves shake the music began to start…

_Ahhhaaaahhhhaaa ah ha ha…_

_Uptown girl! She's been living in her up town world…_

Nabiki shrieked and clamped her hands over her ears to try and block out the blaring sound. It did little good as Billy Joel's voice dug into her brain, and the frozen face thing grabbed her by the collar and dragged her back to the middle of the floor.

_Bet she never had a backstreet guy!_

_BET HER MOMMA NEVER TOLD HER WHY!_

"Remember Nabiki, this hurts me just as much as it hurts you." The creature smashed its fist into Nabiki's nose.

_I'm gonna try for an uptown girl _

_She's been living in her white bread world _

_As long as anyone with hot blood can _

_And now she's looking for a downtown man _

_That's what I am_

Again the monster hit Nabiki square in the middle of the face. A hard crack and Nabiki actually for a moment found herself detached from the pain. Her mind desperately trying to keep up. The only thing she could think about at that moment strangely was how expensive the surgery would be to fix her nose.

_And when she knows what _

_She wants from her time _

_And when she wakes up _

_And makes up her mind_

The monster slammed her fist into Nabiki's face for the third time bringing her back to reality and the pain that came with it. There was no doubt that her nose was a ruin now. She could barely breath now without feeling something salty drip down her throat. She dropped to her knees and gagged, drops of crimson staining the immaculate floor. Blindly she crawled around, sobbing; her hands outstretched trying to feel her way around.

_She'll see I'm not so tough _

_Just because _

_I'm in love with an uptown girl _

_You know I've seen her in her uptown world _

_She's getting tired of her high-class toys _

_And all her presents from her uptown boys _

_She's got a choice_

"Poor Nabiki. Can give it out but can't take it. Now let's see if we can-ufff!" The monster fell to the floor as a result of the leg sweep Nabiki did. Nabiki got up and firmly planted her foot on the creature's chest. With an almost maniacal glee, she raised the baseball bat over her head and then brought it down hard, aimed at the creature's frozen face.

_Uptown girl _

_You know I can't afford to buy her pearls _

_But maybe someday when my ship comes in _

_She'll understand what kind of guy I've been _

_And then I'll win_

Nabiki brought the bat down. It impacted with a satisfying crunch. She did it again, another crunch, she started to giggle and laugh. Another swing, another crunch, faster now, she was in hysterics as the blood dripped down onto her shirt. Another swing, another crunch, each one seeming to grow in ferocity and impact, she didn't feel fatigue really. Hell every time she heard that crunch, hear the thing grunt in pain and agony, she felt her body surge again with even more power.

_And when she's walking _

_She's looking so fine-ine-ine!_

_And when she's talking _

_She'll say that she's mine-ine-ine!_

The thing grabbed the bat on the next swing down. Ripping it out of her hand it swept the floor and knocked Nabiki's feet out from under her. She landed hard, and her stomach revolted against her, making her vomit blood and bile all over the checkered floor. The creature grabbed the back seat of her jeans and in one swift motion ripped them down the middle and pulled then down around her ankles. Then it pulled her back upright and ripped open her shirt.

"White lace? My my my."

_She'll say I'm not so tough _

_Just because _

_I'm in love _

_With an uptown girl! Uptown girl!_

_She's been living in her white bread world _

_As long as anyone with hot blood can _

_And now she's looking for a downtown man _

_That's what I am _

Nabiki backed into the corner, her arms mechanically trying to give her some form of modesty. Trying to pull her clothes back into their usual place. "No more…" She sobbed begging the monster to stop. "No more…"

The frozen thing just grabbed her bandaged arm, the one with the burns covering it and gave it a hard twist, causing some of the blisters beneath the bandage to rupture and pop. The thing picked up a comb filled jar of blue Barbicide and slowly began to pour the blue antiseptic fluid on her open wounds. Nabiki, throat raw, only managed to whimper.

"No…"

The creature nodded and lowered the jar nodding. "You're right…" Suddenly it smashed the entire bottle of barbicide into the side of her face. "That's MUCH better!"

The thing let go and Nabiki staggered back collapsing into the corner. Before she left its grip the thing managed to rip off the rest of her shirt and pants, leaving her in just her undergarments, and bandages. Writhing on the floor in the barbicide, vomit, bile, and blood.

Pain. That was the only thing in her world. Every sense, every nerve, time itself seemed to stop just to let Nabiki know exactly what pure pain was.

And the only sound she could hear was Billy Joel's voice.

She could honestly feel her mind start to break down. She had started to give up, let Silent Hill kill her; she didn't care at this point just to end this torture.

_Uptown Girl, you know…_

"What are you doing here?" The thing suddenly asked. Nabiki tried to turn her head to see whom It was talking to. "What are you going to do with th-" BLAM!

_You know I'm in love…_

The sound was deafening to Nabiki and she saw the Thing stagger back into one of the chairs.

_She's my Uptown…_

The Girl in the Bloody Bridal veil walked into view. She was carrying a shotgun in her hand, chambering another round. Predictably, at least for here, receiving a full shotgun blast to the chest didn't kill the thing. It was actually struggling to get back up. That was until the Girl in the Bloody Bridal Veil stuck the barrel of her shotgun against the thing's forehead and pulled the trigger.

Nabiki noticed that her vision was getting hazy and black. She didn't even bother to fight it this time and she slipped again into unconsciousness.

_My Uptown giiiirrrrlllllll….._

Lavender. That's the first thing that came to her assaulted mind. The color lavender. Something warm against her cheek. A fresh bandage being wrapped around her wounds. She tried to move her head."Nabiki, Nabiki, Nabiki. Why do you have to act like such a dummy?" She heard that familiar far away voice say. "You know you can't die yet." A soft damp feeling on her forehead, a soft sponge wiping away the caked on blood. "You should take better care of yourself too. You're always trying to outsmart people," Something being wrapped around her arm and more of the caked on blood and…other…fluids being gently wiped away. "You need to understand that you can't do that here." A hard tug on her arm and pain shot through her body. "You can NOT outsmart Silent Hill, you can NOT outsmart the Order, and you can NOT outsmart me!" Each time the voice said 'not' it was accentuated by another painful tug.

Her vision was starting to clear up. She couldn't move for some reason. Someone in jeans and a shirt…and that veil…it was her! Wait…she had just saved her from that thing…but…hadn't she been doing her damnest to KILL her?

_Don't think about that just yet! _Her mind screamed. _Focus on trying to move again!_

Nabiki tried, but nothing. Either she was too hurt or, far more likely; the girl had done something to keep her in place. Her vision came back into focus and saw that she had been strapped into the chair by a judicial amount of duct tape.

The Girl in the Bloody Bridal Veil finished her nursing and lifted one hand to place it on Nabiki's cheek. The track marks and ruined veins on the inside of the arm apparent to Nabiki's sharp eyes.

"It'll be all over soon." She patted her on the cheek. "You'll see, this is for the best." She turned away and picked up a black goblet from the counter.

"And now, I consecrate thee…" The girl used the whitish fluid inside to anoint her forehead. "Second of the Sacred Ladies. Mother of Wisdom, Mother of Betrayal, Keeper of Sin, cast in the image of God Herself." The girl opened Nabiki's mouth; her body still not responding to the messages her brain was giving her, and poured in the white fluid down her throat.

"Now…stand before the Avatar of Valtiel, the Favored of the Red God, purify yourself in rage. So that what you hold, may be cleansed from this world."

A large object was dropped in her lap.

"And help pave the way to Paradise." The Girl walked away. "Amen." Nabiki tried to move again and found her hands slowly beginning to respond to the commands and her vision returning. The object in her lap was the shotgun the girl had used to kill that thing. Before she could take it and use it against the Girl in the Bloody Bridal Veil, a cold shock ran through her body. Her eyes felt like they were on fire. She saw her hands; slowly the veins became raised and turned a sickly black. The rest of her skin was turning a deep red. The buzzing sound in her head arose and got louder and louder and louder. Then, once more, blackness.

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"Mason, H?"

"Here. Knife to the stomach."

"Mason, C?"

"Here, slashed my own wrists."

Nabiki blinked. She was back in Furnikan, standing in the doorway to her classroom. There was her homeroom teacher Mr. Futaba. Taking role, just as normal…but…

"Bennet, C."

"Here. Shot to death."

"Cartland, D."

"Here, knife in the stomach."

She turned to look at the class. These were not her classmates; she didn't know any of them. They all looked…normal though. No blemishes or twitching tumors, no vibrating faces. The only thing that seemed odd was that they were all shackled to their desks.

"Schriber, J"

"Here. Killed by Sullivan."

"Birlew, D"

"Here. Burned alive."

Their feet were bound to their chairs, hands lashed down to the tops of their desks, a chained collar attached to the back of their chairs, and more chains wrapped all around them. Every one of these people locked into their seats by all the chains and the locks holding them in place.

"Townsend, H."

"Here, Sullivan as well."

"Galvin, E."

"Here, Sullivan again."

"Tendou, N."

Nabiki blinked in surprise hearing her own name.

"Tendou, N?" Her teacher asked again. Apparently he didn't see her standing just outside the classroom.

"Nabiki Tendou? Has anyone seen Nabiki Tendou?"

Nabiki was about to open her mouth to announce her presence when a warm hand clamped over her mouth and pulled her a few steps back. "I wouldn't do that if I were you Nabiki." A dry, male voice said from behind her. "Unless you want to end up like them." The hand released gently and Nabiki spun around to see another American. He had brown hair, glasses, and a little bit of stubble on his face. He wore a white shirt and a brown vest. In the middle of his chest was a rather large gaping wound that was bleeding freely. "This is just another trap. Go in there on your own steam and you'll never leave Silent Hill."

"Who are you?"

"Just a friend with similar interests." He said smiling. "You better open your eyes Miss Tendou. You're in trouble again."

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A gasping start and Nabiki found herself…in her own classroom? Was she still dreaming? She pinched herself and found herself to be very much awake. She took another look around her environment. No, she was still in Silent Hill. The classroom was western in style. Also posters of a list of the 50 state capitals and American presidents dotted the walls. Of course, there were also desks with rotten bento boxes, and another poster of a pop idol on another wall. What was going on?

She slowly walked to one of the windows and looked outside. She felt sick looking at it. There was Ukyo's restaurant next to Maxine's Toys…the park by the lake now looked like the one by the reservoir in her home. It was impossible for her to tell now, the buildings stretched and warped in an arcane mix of styles. She didn't know where she was any more.

"Silent Nerima." She chuckled grimly to herself. She looked out of the window one more time and she saw it. Among all the chaos, the streets and store not making sense or moving around, changing positions, there it was. Her home, the Tendou Dojo, unchanged, just a short walk from the entrance of this school. No question to where she had to go now.

She took a step back from the window, and then paused to look at herself in the reflection. The girl had done a good job patching her up. She had even managed to reset her nose in place and bandage it.

The girl had also changed her ripped and filthy clothes with a very familiar lavender dress. It was her bridesmaid's dress. The same one she wore for the wedding. She still had her baseball bat, but the girl had taken her pistol. She had, though, replaced it with the shotgun and three boxes worth of shells.

"I'll be sure to return these." Nabiki mumbled as she figured out how to load the shotgun. She also was figuring out in what part of the Girl's body she would return the shells into.

Walking out of the classroom she rounded the corner and headed for the stairs, she needed to go down one more floor to get out. She paused halfway to the stairs having heard a grunting sound coming from the classroom that was apparently next to the one she had woken up in. Getting her weapon ready she carefully opened the door and looked inside.

The only thing in the middle of the room was one desk. On top of the desk was a small pile of pictures of Akane, covering the surface. Sitting in the chair was a person in a boy's school uniform. Nabiki found herself very surprised to recognize the person sitting there.

"Hikaru? Hikaru Gosunkugi?" Nabiki asked in disbelief. The figure nodded; ceasing in whatever action he had been doing when she came in.

"I thought I told you not come here!"

"Yes you did." He replied in a very soft voice.

"I would have expected you of all people to know how dangerous it is here!"

"I know." He said getting up from the desk.

Nabiki slowly backed away from Hikaru. He had that same horrible bleeding smile plastered over his face. All over his eyes was what looked like layers and layers of tissues, dried and encrusted. Still it didn't seem like he had any problem seeing where she was. "Hikaru…what…your eyes…"

Gosunkugi chuckled. "You know, the old saying's true Nabiki." He took a step towards her and she took another two away from him. "It really does make you go blind." Slowly he took out of his pants' pocket what had to be the largest handgun she had ever seen. A .352 Magnum, one shot from that could conceivably blow her face off. He pulled back the hammer.

"Would you give me a ten second head start?" Nabiki almost kicked herself for saying something as stupid as that. However she couldn't exactly think of anything else at the moment.

"Sure!" Gosunkugi said. "One Mississippi…Two Mississippi…"

Nabiki ran, she could hear that thing inside Hikaru still counting down. She had to get out of here or else she would have to…no…killing monsters was one thing but an actual human, someone she knew?

"Nine Mississippi…Ten! Ready or not here I come!"

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Author's Notes: Yeah I'm going to Hell for this one. I couldn't help myself, I did a song fic. I hope you don't mind. Thanks to WFROSE, read, review, death threat, etc. No Ryoga this time, I'm going to be taking the requests to heart and making his own story, so look for that in the future. (Probably after G&S is done)

Oh and go see the Silent Hill movie coming out too.


	13. Obsessed

Obsessed

Disclaimer: I'm not dead! Just obscenely busy (and lazy). Anyway, 13th verse same as first. Ranma & Silent Hill are not mine. This is just for fun.

Author's Notes: Please note that this all takes place in the GAME version of Silent Hill, NOT the MOVIE version. (The movie is worth seeing if you want to get more SH creepiness though.)

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Nabiki pulled herself down the hall, before ducking into a classroom. She backed herself up against the wall, and slid down, as her anxiety weighted her to the ground. She would have been impressed that she was able to move so easily in her tailored bridesmaid dress. Apart from the gaudy lavender fabric it was comprised of, it was designed rather well. Kasumi always did have such a knack for things, though the color scheme had to be blamed on someone.

As her breathing slowed, she felt the weariness settle into her. She was tired, too tired to keep running, too tired to relive the surprise every time she encountered a new threat. She was tired of living an unending nightmare; too tired to continue living.

She chuckled softly to herself, as she checked to make sure that her shotgun was loaded, and wrapped a few of her remaining clean bandages around the handle of the baseball bat for a better grip. It was a serviceable armament, but she knew she could do better. That meant she had a new place to head to.

"Metal shop."

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Gosunkugi hung against the wall; his mind swimming, and his vision blurring in and out. Large gaps of his memory were falling away like rotting meat from bone, and his consciousness danced between ebon and reality. He barely even remembered what had happened before or after that mallet has slammed into the side of his skull, filling him with an almost outside sense of panic that he couldn't seem to fully grasp heartfully. The corpses across from him were still there, leering at him with those rotted eye sockets that held more empathy than any pair of irises and pupils could.

He turned his head slightly, at the soft set of footsteps approaching. Hikaru winced in anticipation, from the lightness of the step, it was most likely the girl and that meant more pain, as well as terrors that accompanied her that he couldn't recall, he could scarcely remember his name at this point. His wanted to whimper, but his throat still burned from something he didn't remember.

The sound of delicately small feet against the hard floor grew more pronounced, before stopping barely a few couple of meters from him. Slowly, Hikaru's hazy vision showed a girl, dressed in dark brown pants and a white turtleneck sweater. Even without his memory of what had been happening to him, he felt a great deal of elation that it wasn't 'her'.

Despite the raw sensation of his throat, Hikaru managed to mumble, "Help…" The girl stopped, and turned to look at Gosunkugi, a look of mild puzzlement and apprehension on her face. She tilted her head slightly, as if trying to make sure that it was him who spoke.

"Help…please." Hikaru pleaded again, using what limited English vocabulary he garnered from his school studies.

The girl blinked and looked around as if checking for something. Coyly, she withdrew a large kitchen knife from her pants pocket. Hikaru felt fear spike in his heart again; if this girl was a monster, or worse, then he was dead. He dared not make another sound, as she cautiously approached him, holding the improvised weapon readily and menacingly

The fear deflated, as she brought the blade from where it had come close to his nose to above him, and then felt her slowly but diligently cut away the restraints and the jacket. He dropped to the floor almost bonelessly, and spent a few moments trying to right himself on legs lacking sensation, and blinking his vision back to a serviceable level

"Arigato… Th-thank to you," He said looking up to the girl. He patted his chest. "I… am…Hikaru Gosunkugi."

She didn't say anything in response, instead she sighed, and turned away from the young boy to head back down the hallway.

"That way out?" He asked, leaning up against the wall, not sure of the stability in his legs.

The girl responded by shrugging without even turning to face him.

Gosunkugi felt footing was a little more solid, and brought the palms of his hands to his eyes to fight off a massively pounding headache, before followed the girl into the darkness.

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Nabiki knew her objective wouldn't be a simple one. She was hoping to go to the metal shop and convert her bat into something with a piercing edge, unfortunately the pile of debris covering the stairway up blocked the most direct way to the classroom. Nabiki supposed she could try and find another way up there, but with Gosunkugi tailing her, she presumed she didn't have time.

She needed to get another weapon. The bat was okay, but not nearly effective enough for the battle she anticipated. She also knew that this was still far from the end, so she felt it best to conserve the ammunition for the shotgun. She'd rather save it for the greater horrors that awaited her, or at the very least when she knew the psycho behind her was at point blank range.

She took a moment to think; she was on the third floor, while the science lab and shop classes were on the fourth floor. There was nothing but classrooms on the third floor, but on the second floor…what was on the second floor? Quietly, Nabiki descended the stairs, relieved to find that the stairs to the ground floor were unblocked.

Inspiration struck her, as she put her foot down on the rusted grating that the floor was comprised of. She bolted towards the classroom where she would hopefully gain a little more weaponry and an advantage against Hikaru. The school was phasing out the class due to… volatile incidents, but the Home Economics classroom still remained. She hoped they hadn't yet used up the class's supplies.

The classroom was still intact though twisted to meet the hellish paradise of Silent Hill; rust covered almost every metal surface, the walls were splattered with a reddish brown substance that occasionally dripped and twitched, and the floor was a steel grating with holes opening in it leading to a uncertain fate, while the fluids liberally coating the walls dripped and splattered on the twisted wreckage and rubble of the floor below. Nabiki's main concern were that all the shelves, counters, and stovetops were still there. Nabiki took back her relief, when she noticed one of the stoves were actually lit and had a bubbling pot of something on the stove. She gagged; it actually looked and smelled worse than one of Akane's creations.

Nabiki began to scavenge the classroom for anything she could use; a knife, a rolling pin, a frying pan, Hell…she'd be happy with a spoon. But every drawer seemed to either be empty or unable to open. She swore under her breath and turned around, only to find her breath stop short as she found that Gosunkugi was standing right behind her, impersonally close to her.

"Hi."

Gosunkugi swept her feet out from under her with a dexterity she didn't think he was capable of, and hit the ground brutally. Gosunkugi was then on top of her, leering like a predator about to tear the first hunk of flesh from its fallen prey. He grabbed Nabiki's right breast and squeezed hard. "How about a quick one while he's away?" He stated with a husky voice; his breath rotting of something foul and dead.

"GET OFF ME!" She screamed, managing to slam her knee into his groin. He froze, opening his mouth open in an airless gasp as the pain filtered through his body. She wriggled out from under him and made for the door.

"Bitch!" She didn't look around, choosing self preservation over astonishment; apparently whatever possessed him was able to operate past the level pain she was ensured she inflicted. She sprinted for the door, and slammed it, just before a sharp metal point pushed through the wood startling Nabiki.

_An ice pick?!_ Nabiki thought as she ran for the stairwell. _When and where did he get an ice pick?!_

She started to run for the stairs, and got about halfway down the hallway when she heard the door she had just left behind her smash open. She spun around to see Gosunkugi hot of her heels. The ice pick in one hand, the gun in the other. He hurled the ice pick at her, causing her to throw herself low to dodge it. It soared over her, before rebounding off a hall wall fall to the floor. Even with her minor victory, she gave ground to her pursuer. She looked back to see him grinning, as he raised the gun. Nabiki raised her arms to her face reflexively as instincts of self preservation took over, before the deafening crack of thunder sounded, and her world was embraced in pure pain.

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Gosunkugi buried the ice pick into the laughing creature's skull, or at least the large protrusion from the body that had that mouth that was making those awful noises. It collapsed to the ground and Hikaru delivered his hardest kick to the torso. It stopped its spasms, and more importantly, that damnable laughter.

For a moment he elated at the adrenaline rush through his body; true he had been involved in but a few Nerima skirmishes, but they were nothing like this, they carried not of the gravity he currently felt. His body had caked blood and icor over it, his left arm erupted into a piercing pain every time he tried to run, and he knew his head wound was responsible for his dizzy spells. His loss of memory was only distracted from by that horrible awful siren that seemed to cause every part of his body to bathe in unyielding pain.

He took another look at the festering form on the ground and pulled out the ice pick with a vicious jerk, while blessing every deity he could think of that he had found it. It was just lying on the ground a little ways away from where he had been hanging , and he knew it would come in useful. Hikaru tried not to despair if he if he would ever be able to find his way out of this seemingly endless labyrinth of walls, stone, and ladders, but the anxiety was slowly drilling at him.

Stepping back, he turned to his companion, as if requesting her approval. She hadn't said a word so far, a little blessing actually, seeing as his English was extremely limited. She seemed able to handle herself, staying away from the monsters or slashing at them with her knife. Strangely the monsters never seemed that interested in her. Also she apparently had a vague idea of where she was heading.

Hopefully, wherever she was going would also be a way out of here. If not Hikaru knew he wouldn't escape alive.

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Nabiki screamed, as she collapsed to the floor and howled in pain. She could see her left forearm was a bloody mess, as two protrusions jutted out of her arm. The bone had splintered, and broke the flesh that encased it.

Her train of thought was stopped by Gosunkugi kicking her side hard. She weakly reached for her shotgun with her good but shaky arm, only to have Gosunkugi deftly kicked it away. Nabiki watched in horror as it slid across the floor and fell through one of the gaping maws to the floor below.

"So, how does it feel, my ice queen?" The deep warped voice from the schoolboy's throat almost rasped. Nabiki's unbroken hand clawed around on the ground and found her fingers closing around something on the ground.

"Tell me," He placed a foot on her chest, exerting surprising force down upon her. "What does it feel like looking into the hell you're heading to? Gosunkugi found it rather liberating. What's your opinion?"

Nabiki's undeniable response was to ram the dropped ice pick into Gosunkugi's ankle as hard as she possibly could.

The thing screeched in an inhuman tone that rattled her ears, and collapsed to the floor. Nabiki was up and running again, abandoning the ice pick in Gosunkugi's leg. Hopefully that should slow him down enough for her to gain some advantage; however, her arm was the priority. She had to treat it quickly before the full intensity of the pain from the wound hit her and completely disabled her. She ducked into a random door, and braced the door closed with a chair.

She forced her breath as calmly as she could, and stifled the whimpers that threatened to emit from her throat, and gave a quick look around. Paints, paper, and an assortment of creative materials filled the room; possibly an art supply room. She took another calming breath, and got the first aid kit out of her duffle bag as gently as she could without jostling her broken arm. She had to do this carefully, and she needed to do it quick.

Her first aid kid had a few scant bandages; not nearly enough, nor the strength she needed. She bit her lip, trying to will away the pain in her arm. She had to think quickly, doubting it would take Gosunkugi long to catch up with her. She scanned the room once more, desperately hoping to find something to assist her, and spotted a meter stick leaning against the wall. She strode over to it, and kicked it to snap it with the floor and wall bracing it so that it was suitable length. Scouring the room further, she also found a large roll of brown packing tape thrown into an art supply closet. She used the last of her first aid kit to sterilize and treat the wound, while the broken ruler was used as a splint. She wrapped the brown tape around her arm holding it, securing it into place and granting it stability.

Gingerly she tried moving her arm. It still hurt like hell, and she could only lift her arm by her shoulder; attempting to move it by the elbow only granted her blinding pain.

Her time was up, signified by the sound of wood splintering as the door split down the middle. Another crash sounded, before the door buckled and shattered in, revealing Gosunkugi standing there in the wreckage. His left shoulder slightly out of align with his shoulder blades, proving his zealousness by throwing it out breaking the door. He smirked, unaware of the pain he should be suffering, as he raised his gun and cocked the hammer. She grabbed the first things she could get a hold of and threw them at Gosunkugi. There was a gunshot and then suddenly the world went… yellow.

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The gun was a godsend. He had found it in, of all places, an abandoned refrigerator in the middle of the hospital lobby, well, at least what he thought was a hospital lobby. Normally he would make a joke about America's gun crazy culture, but right now, may the heavens bless the American Second Amendment.

The girl in the white turtleneck stopped in front of a door halfway down the corridor they were walking down. She put her hand on the knob and slowly turned it.

"This way out?" He asked, following her through the door.

"This is how it ends." She spoke. Her voice was a harsh raspy whisper. "This is how it always ends."

It was an inferno, as fire seemed to be everywhere. The stairway before them seemed to be a nightmare work of steel, wood, and fire. Hikaru coughed as the superheated air seared his lungs, and tried to locate his companion in the escaping smoke. He gasped in shock when he looked at the girl. Her skin was covered in blisters and flaked skin that darkened with longer and longer exposure.

"You've always been like this." Hikaru said. It wasn't a question, just a statement. The girl nodded. Slowly she pushed past Hikaru and began to walk up the stairs into the raging fire. Just as she always did, it was best this way…it was the only way.

"Don't." He turned to look at her. "Please…"

She paused, as larger and more charred flesh fell from her body.

"You can fight this. You can't give up! This town isn't unbeatable! Please!" He never knew why he said that.

She turned and looked at Hikaru, curiously noticing that there wasn't any fire around him. The whole time he had been with her, he had never been affected by the all consuming flames. She turned fully to him, favoring her companion with a curious expression; maybe that was why she had cut him down. He wasn't like the others she had met. All the others had the same comforting words but all the same in the end. The grateful little girl willing to give herself over to her 'savior.' The young Japanese man's face had a… a something… she couldn't put it in words. She just…didn't feel afraid around him.

"Please…" He held up a handkerchief to his face with one hand and holding out the other as if he were her salvation. "Please, come! Run!" He said in that heavily accented broken English.

The girl in the white sweater then did something she would never be able to explain. She hesitantly walked one step down the burning stairs then took another; each step her hope growing, each step making the forces of the cursed town angrier and angrier.

The stairs whined, then buckled under her legs, as an ungodly roar from the maws of hell blasted through the room. Hikaru watched impotently, as the girl in the white turtleneck sweater was swallowed by the ground. The resigned look on her face flickered away for just a second, and he could have sworn she had almost begun to try and reach out for him. Hikaru lunged forward trying to grab her, but it was too late, she as her consoling smile told him that she was lost to the inferno again.

Hikaru screamed something but the smoke and hot air just surged into his throat. He staggered back and fell, his back against the wall. The wind being knocked out of him. He spent three seconds cursing himself and his worthlessness for letting the girl die. Then he stopped suddenly, because 'it' had appeared before him.

He stared up at the being before him. Although his skin was boiling and his back was pressed against a heated wall his entire body felt cold as ice. It towered over him; strong muscular arms, a long smock-like garment made of human skin, and that helmet. Worse of all was the feeling of pure hate, malice, and above all, great violence, permeated the air around it.

Gosunkugi stared at the monster, he was dimly aware of the growing moisture in the crotch of his pants. This was death incarnate, a blood-rusted monster, as malicious as the devil itself. The thing just placed one of its hands upon Gosunkugi's forehead, and he felt…everything…being ripped away.

**MINE.**

He screamed, but only in his mind. His mouth was laughing, the mouth dripping with his own scarlet life fluid.

Slowly he got up, and began to walk. His hand slowly moving down inside his pants. The other getting out his gun and checking to see that it was loaded. She was on her way and he had to prepare.

"Isn't this better?" A mockingly soft voice said. "Just relax Hikaru…enjoy it."

Hikaru Gosunkugi's only remaining thought was to pray for death.

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Nabiki managed to realign her senses and focus past the overpowering yellow. She was now covered in the thick yellow paint that had been in the two spray paint cans she had thrown. The bullet must have hit them. Her bridesmaid dress was ruined; no big loss in her mind since she hated the color. She grimaced; realizing yellow was hardly an improvement.

She looked at Gosunkugi quickly, remembering he was there; the explosion and recoil had caused him to stagger back and crash into the wall, buried in piles of art supplies and red acrylic paint. The rest of the room was a mix of the two colors along with a poorly mixed orange. Gosunkugi also seemed senseless for the moment, and trapped under a couple large rolls of butcher paper that his frail body would take more than a few moments to shift to free himself. Nabiki would not waste the opportunity, and took off, heading for the stairs, hoping to retrieve the shotgun.

The stairs stopped at what looked like a large square room. The floor was cement with another one of those strange symbols carved into it. This one was two co-centric circles, but instead of more circles like that 'Halo of the Sun' earlier, this one had a triangle carved into it. A large mirror made up one entire wall of the room, and two large double doors led to outside. In the middle of the room was the shotgun.

She almost let out a sob of joy when her fingers closed around the wood handle of the shotgun. She thought back with scorn at the naïve girl who sneered at the thought of Americans and their firearms. She got back up and sprinted for the doors, the hopeful promise of blessed freedom from this hell. Her foot tripped on the uneven floor and she went sprawling.

She landed on her stomach hard with a wet sound, as the paint on her shirt hadn't yet dried. She managed to maneuver her injured arm away from the fall, though her other one had scraped itself pretty badly on the ground. Her duffle burst open, and spilt all its contents; the spare box of shells, the baseball bat, her last few medical supplies, and the pages of that insane storybook.

She gagged and spat as her stomach made another violent spasm. With a horrible sound she spat a large lump onto one of the scattered pages on the floor. Her spittle was a white froth covering a black and dark red mass, containing far too much solid material for her preference. Suddenly she paused as a new oddity came to her attention.

The blood didn't absorb into the paper. It beaded and pooled in some areas and ran in odd lines in others. She felt the back of the paper, allowing the fingertips on her good hand to sense waxy in texture with occasional grooves, like broken candle wax. Her fingers lightly danced over it, finding the grooves eerily consistent. Nabiki paused for a moment, listening. Gosunkugi was still limping around upstairs, she still had time.

She pulled out the story book and felt the other pages. All of them were waxy with hidden characters, done in Japanese kana, carved into them. Laying them all out on the floor she puzzled about how she could decipher the pages without requiring her to spill more blood. She rummaged through her duffle bag again to see if anything left inside could help her. She mirthfully considered if she could find a bloody bandage to wring out and use. Her hands stopped as she felt the small plastic fluid filled sacks and recollection hit her. She pulled them out to reveal the soy sauce packets she had picked up in the restaurant.

Without bothering to consider the odd coincidence she ripped them open and poured the dark salty liquid all over the pages. The letters soaked up the condiment and revealed a new message for Nabiki.

_Once there was a very sad girl, _

_She was very pretty, and many people loved her,_

_She also had two loving sisters, but still she was sad._

_Sad because she was going to be alone soon_

_Then one day the sad girl met a man with grey kind eyes_

_He gave her Grace, and that made her happy._

_The Man came from a town where everyone was happy,_

_And the Sad Girl wanted everyone in her town to be happy too. _

_Alas, where he offered happiness, she was weighted by silver. _

_The silver was tarnished and heavy and brought pain to all. _

_How the silver mocked the man who was happy without wealth. _

_How the silver scorned and alienated him._

_So she gathered everyone together on a happy day,_

_Surrounded them all with Grace, let the air fill with it_

_And then everyone began to be happy._

_Once the tarnished Silver was removed._

After the poem ended though, in the letters she had stained with blood there was another message, not written by the same hand that had done the poem.

_Eternal Paradise comes with Death._

_Eternal Love can be found in Sin._

_Eternal Prosperity is given to Cowards._

_Eternal Salvation is with God._

Nabiki frowned and shook her head in frustration. What the hell did any of that mean? Well the story part made some sense to her, but that last part…she had no clue at all. That really irritated her because she knew that whatever it meant that it was extremely important.

Her train of thought was derailed by the sound of footsteps approaching the top of the stairs. Nabiki went for the doors again, and found that they were stuck closed. She swore and then quickly moved to the corner next to the stairwell and primed her shotgun. A tricky task to do one handed.

"Nabiki." Hikaru's voice cried out in a sensuous, seducing, almost sing song style. "You know I'll find you."

Nabiki rolled her eyes. A smirk slowly found its way to her face as she recalled her feelings of her being in a horror movie when she first entered the town. True, Gosunkugi was a far cry from the usual slasher killer, but still she couldn't help but repress a little maddened but quiet giggle at the absurdity of it all.

Gosunkugi calmly walked down the stairs. His gun was squarely pointed at Nabiki. He whistled the first few bars of the music that always plays in westerns when there's a shoot out at high noon. "You feeling lucky Nabiki?" He said as they both walked to the center of the room. Their firearms trained on each other.

"You've been waiting to say that haven't you?" Nabiki said dryly.

Hikaru shrugged, "A little, yeah."

The siren then chose that time to begin its piercing wail. Gosunkugi dropped his weapon to clasp his hands over his ears, while Nabiki dropped to her knees in a vain attempt to bury her head between her legs. Once more Nabiki felt as if there was something burrowing into her skull with steel claws. Then slowly, gradually, the siren died away to nothing. Nabiki lowered her hands and opened her eyes. Gosunkugi was laid out unconscious on the floor.

"Saved by the bell." She chuckled.

She actually managed to take one step towards the door before the vertigo hit her. The room then seemed to begin to spin and once more her vision became blurry and dark. "Damn." Nabiki hit the ground as once more darkness overtook her.

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"Shhhh." A cold hand wiping the blood from her forehead, as a dry scratchy hand peeling the tissues from his eyes. A soft voice humming a song too faint to make out danced just within his senses.

A woman with blood covering her face as well as another woman in white sweater with burnt hands, red with blisters met his vision. Her face was also covered with peeling skin and popped blisters.

"You…" Gosunkugi looked up at the young woman in the sweater. "You're the one who helped me before."

The girl nodded.

"Are you an angel?" Gosunkugi croaked.

A soft sad chuckle from the red nurse. The woman in the sweater just patted his forehead with a damp cloth.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help you." Tears dripped down his face as he recalled his failure.

The woman just put a hand on his cheek in response.

"Huh." The nurse began to softly redo Nabiki's splint, replacing the bloody tape with actual medical bandages. "She must like you."

Gosunkugi started to laugh but ended abruptly with a sharp breath that sounded full of pain. "Then this must be a hallucination. As if a pretty girl like her could like me."

The woman in the sweater actually blushed. "You…think I'm pretty?" Her voice was a scratchy harsh whisper like last time. However under it he could hear a young voice as well. How he could understand what she was saying was a bit of a mystery, but he wasn't really thinking about that at the moment.

"Yes." Gosunkugi swallowed, an act that looked painful. "An angel."

The woman in the sweater blushed and left the room.

"She's very shy." The bleeding nurse said as she began to treat Gosunkugi. "But I do think she likes you."

"Guess she has lousy taste." Nabiki said. Her throat was raw, and every word was a brand new experience in the world of pain.

The nurse gave her a look but Gosunkugi managed a pained laugh that turned into a realizing gasp. "Nabiki? That you?"

"Yeah."

"Oh God!" A wince, that exclamation had been painful. "I'm…I'm so sorry Nabiki. I don't ev-"

"Forget it. It's not you doing this." Nabiki tried to turn her head to look at Gosunkugi but found herself unable. "You are paying for my medical bills though."

Another chuckle from the beleaguered boy. "Fine, put it on my tab."

Nabiki chuckled, sighed and looked at the nurse. "Are we dead then?"

"No." The nurse said carefully cleaning the young boy's wounds. "Well...sort of…it's complicated and I don't understand it entirely, myself."

"Why are you doing this?" She asked. Even though she couldn't move she was desperately scanning the room for a weapon that she could use if (and when) the other people in the room turned into monsters.

"You two are holy vessels." A new voice said. ""So think of this as…a baptism." It was the familiar dry voice of the man with the glasses. The nurse's face scrunched up into a look of distaste.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, the snarl in her voice clearly audible.

"Telling these two the truth." He walked into view of the two teens strapped down. "I feel they deserve that much at least."

"You never told the truth once in your life."

"Good thing I'm dead then." He said with a chuckle. "Just keep working."

"Who are you?" Nabiki said.

"He's a priest of the cult here." Gosunkugi rasped out. "He died a few years ago."

"You've done your research, not bad." He took a deep breath. "The purification ritual of the Sacred Ladies Sect of the Order is a ritual to turn a place into a…" He paused a bit to chuckle to himself. "quaint paradise like Silent Hill. The ritual causes all sins and evils to take form and rise to the surface where all can see them. Then they are to be gathered together in a vessel, and then all you have to do is eliminate the vessel, thus removing sin." He clapped his hands together for emphasis. "Simple huh?"

"Ukyo told me that already." Nabiki said. "So I'm the vessel?"

"You both are, it's quicker to use two vessels at once and then have one kill the other when they're filled."

"So why are you telling us this?"

"Because it serves me." He sat on Nabiki's stretcher and wiped his glasses. "There's a way out of this, all of this, and if you figure it out I can get out of this hell too."

"So what is it?" Gosunkugi said trying to get up, only to be gently pushed back down by the nurse.

"I can't tell you, sorry." He sighed ruefully. "It's unbelievably anal retentive here. I tell you one way and then it'll change to something else. Look at what happened to all those other so-called heroes. They all thought they had won, when in reality they had literally walked into the town's most insidious trap." He exhaled slowly. "I can give you a clue…well…another clue." He was looking at Nabiki. "To summon the Lord, bring forth the Red God and the Yellow God both to the altar, then anoint it with sacred water."

The nurse just rolled her eyes. "What reason should any of us trust you?"

"No reason." He got up with a grunt. "Consider it a leap of faith. Now," the all too familiar wail of the siren was starting up again. "I'm sorry to say the intermission is over. Try not to go deaf, now."

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Nabiki opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling. a mild sense of serenity had washed over her, relaxing her more than she had been in ages. Slowly sitting up with a wince she found that her wounds were still quite painful, but greatly nullified. The nurse's ministrations were still there, and the shotgun and baseball bat were both on the floor along with Nabiki's bag of supplies.

A groan from the other side of the room also indicated that Gosunkugi was still here as well. Nabiki doubted that he had returned to his senses, this was reinforced by the sound of a bestial sound that was a mix of a scream, a sob, laughter, and coughing as he tried to pull himself up.

Nabiki however was faster and managed to get up, grab the shotgun and point it at her assailant.

"Lobsel Vith." The thing inside Gosunkugi giggled as he slowly rose, gun in his hand. "Why are you still letting that tainted vessel command you?"

_Because the bitch is stronger than that simpering idiot you have._

Where did THAT voice come from?! Nabiki had heard that voice, but…it wasn't from anywhere around her. She couldn't locate the source.

"Come now 'Valtiel.'" The thing continued speaking what Nabiki thought was pure gibberish. An almost sympathetic tone it its voice as it raised the gun. "I know you are better than a little girl."

_I'm not like you. I am patient. I took care of all the others. This one will be no different._

Where the Hell did that voice come from? It was close…almost like it came from…the mirror.

Nabiki didn't want to look. She knew that whatever was in there wasn't something she wanted to see. She should just shoot Gosunkugi and get the hell out of this death trap. Still, despite all of her mental protests and better judgment, she found herself slowly turning to look at the large mirror.

Gosunkugi's reflection was bad. His skin was blood red, naturally red, not just from the paint, and thick black veins rose from his skin. His eyes were pure red with white pupils, while his hair had been ripped out in tufts, and black blood dripped from his temples. His mouth had been sewn shut with thick black strips of what looked like rotting leather. He was dressed in a garment that looked like a cross between a gown and a smock made out of human skin. Malice, rage, and a sense of sheer brutal strength all emanated from his image.

As bad as Gosunkugi's was Nabiki's was far worse. It wasn't her appearance. No, that looked perfectly normal. Save for all the paint, bandages, and wounds, but there was something just Wrong about her appearance. Then she saw it. The piece of skin in her hand, it was her father's face. Hollowed out, like a mask. Then her face vibrated, well…not her face, but rather as if her skull vibrated independently from her skin. She realized then that something was inside her… no… something was _wearing_ her. A sudden recollection hit her, recalling the thing that had been her 'father' from the clinic. Something had hollowed her out inside and donned her hollow shell like a full body coat, only it had decided to let Nabiki be the one in command, for now at least. She also knew that underneath her face, that thing was smiling at her. The smile, of course, had blood dripping from the corners.

"Kill me." Gosunkugi gasped and Nabiki looked back at the boy standing in front of her. "Please Nabiki." His hand shook as his arm slowly, haltingly lowered the gun. "It has to be you that survives. I don't stand a chance!"

"Hikaru…" Nabiki kept the shotgun raised. "Fight it! Please!"

"I can't." Tears dripped down his cheeks, as his legs began to buckle. "It's too strong. I couldn't save her, I can't fight this thing inside me, I'm just worthless!" His doppelganger in the mirror laughed at the young boys sobs, a guttural sound that Nabiki knew couldn't come from a human throat. Nabiki's mirror image just stared impassively at the both of them, almost as if it were bored with a movie being played before it.

"Please Nabiki! Kill me! I can't…I don't want…I…I…" He dropped his head, and Nabiki sensed the dark calm suddenly eminate from him, before the rage, animosity, and maliciousness permeated the air about him. His head slowly raised to reveal his blood red eyes.

"I want to end it all." He pulled back the hammer too casually for Nabiki's comfort. "Goodbye Nabiki Tendou."

The tremendous thundering boom of the firing mechanism igniting the gunpowder between the bullet and the shell echoed in the empty room, rattling the windows and the soul.

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After a long, long time Nabiki broke the silence.

"I'm a horrible person." Nabiki stood there as long as she could. Then the smell of blood became overly potent, and overwhelmed her. She tried the doors to the outside again, and nearly praised gods she barely acknowledged in the past when they offered no resistance. She exited the school and entered the chaotic maelstrom that was the town that she had grown up in, and the hell she had been trapped in.

The buildings were watching her, like they had the eyes of a jury passing judgement. They loomed over her, the broken windows still hiding potential evils from her in their darkness. The whispers were everywhere now, only now they were no longer whispers as they were urgent, hoarse shouts demanding her attention. The closer and closer she got to the house, to the dojo, the louder they got. By the time she had reached the gate the voice was shrieking at her now; gibbering away, babbling about mindless loves and inane hates. The list for each seemed endless, and nearly tainted Nabiki's mind with their urgent and overbearing mantra.

If there were any monsters here they weren't attacking her, yet Nabiki knew she was being watched by many hidden spectators, granted invisibility by the darkness. A shift of a shadow here, a sound there; she was surrounded by signs that told her that potential death hid all around her proximity. The fact that they now apparently had no more interest in her was now causing her more worry than relief.

She didn't even bother looking at the house or going inside. There was only one place where this would end. Instinctually, she knew the one place this would all come to a head; the Tendou dojo, now the Tendou Chapel.

It was just as she remembered it. The rows of chairs all set up nice and orderly. The multiple arrangements of flowers placed all around, bringing a sweet smell to the air that was so out of place it made her nauseous and gag. She didn't even smell the rotting bodies of her friends and family that sat in the seats, all dressed in their finery. How they were all here momentarily confused Nabiki, but she then wryly recalled this was Silent Hill, one should expect something like this. At the front of the chapel was an altar covered in a white bed sheet, and standing in front of the altar was the girl in the bloody bridal veil, lightly tapping the pistol Nabiki had once had at her side.

Nabiki readied her shotgun and marched up to the Girl, her eyes devoid of any emotion save murderous rage that blackened her irises and pupils.

"Hello Nabiki." She sounded genuinely happy. "I had no doubt you would be able to make it here."

Nabiki smirked then ran forward. Her smirk shifted into an animalistic snarl, as she lunged for the Girl's face. Nabiki ripped off the veil just as the Girl pulled away the sheet covering the altar.

Ranma was lying there on the altar, still in his tuxedo matted with thickly dried blood. His chest slowly rose and fell slightly, showing that he was still alive, but unconscious. A hypodermic needle was next to him, used and empty, and a small, barely visible welt rose from his arm.

Akane was lying next to him, in her wedding gown. Half of her face and her neck was torn open, as if it had been violently ripped through by dozens of shards or pellets; the shotgun shell laying near the alter explained the youngest Tendou's fate. The pool of blood around her head had already attempted to coagulate and dry into a flaky icor along with the little lumps of flesh jutting from it. Despite the violent mess made of her body, she was still smiling, and very much dead.

Nabiki however wasn't focusing on that.

Nabiki's mind went utterly blank, and her voice was lost to her throat. The only thing that she managed to squeeze out in her shock was a soft, barely audible:

"Oh… my…"

The pregnant silence between the two girls seemed not to affect the girl that had been wearing the bridal veil. She smiled, causing the blood pooling in the corners of her mirthful expression to spill over, before she chuckled and replied.

"My dear, sweet, little sister…what an apt thing to say."

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Authors Notes: **PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL THE ENDING OF THIS CHAPTER IN YOUR REVIEW. **I want people who read this later to get the same surprise I hope you did.

Anyways, props to WFROSE, review to your hearts desire, you've seen all of this before.


	14. Vessel

Vessel

Disclaimer: Konami has Silent Hill, Takahashi has Ranma, this is just for fun.

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"I don't see why we have to go to this!" Akane fumed.

"Akane's right Kasumi." Nabiki griped. "These things are usually just designed to make you give up your money to some guy with a worthless 'self-help' plan."

"I think Mother would have wanted us to do this." Kasumi said.

The two younger girls went silent. If Kasumi was willing to play that card then that meant there would be no argument. Also, Nabiki figured that this might be a good way to find some more marks, or even some blackmail material. She was a little surprised at Kasumi though. Grief counseling was, while admittedly a valid practice, NOT something Japanese did, much less a proper Japanese housewife life Kasumi was. Judging by the loaned tea service in one hand and the letter Kasumi was holding in her right Nabiki could guess that this must have been an idea of Dr. Tofu's. Well, if the good doctor had gone through all the trouble to get them to go there Nabiki supposed she might as well grit her teeth and bear it. She'd go to the first meeting, keep Akane in line, and then she'd do what all Japanese did with their feelings. Shove them out of the way and get on with life.

The program was being held in one of the multipurpose halls that were dotted around Nerima. They were built by people who were unfortunate enough to have been saddled with real estate that, for one reason or another, couldn't be used to build apartments and wasn't in the right place for any kind of commercial business either. But, build four walls and a roof, put in a floor, and then open it for rent for martial art tournaments or exhibitions and it was an entirely different story. Even Nabiki had to admit that it was a clever idea.

There were a lot more people present than any of the girls expected, thirty, forty, maybe as many as fifty people were there. They were all divided up into smaller groups, a ring of people sitting in a circle of folding chairs. Nearly all of the people here were women, and a good deal of them weren't Japanese. Still there were enough to make the sisters not feel too out of place.

A very nice woman got up and introduced herself to the girls, guiding them to join one of the smaller groups. They didn't force them to talk or open up, mostly they just waited, listening to the others and trying to participate in the group exercises.

After a while Kasumi, who was growing slightly tired of trying to find her 'power animal' inside her 'cave,' decided to go get a cup of tea from the refreshments table. In her typical manner she asked if anyone else wanted anything. Everyone else politely declined and she went to the table to get a cup of her tea.

"I'm sorry for your loss." A soft voice said next to Kasumi as she poured herself a cup. She looked up and saw a man in a white button down shirt and black pants. He was Japanese, but his voice had a strange accent to it, telling that while he knew the language, he had been living somewhere outside of the country for a while. He had the kindest grey eyes.

"Thank you," She gave him a soft smile.

"Gregory Itori." He extended his hand in greeting. American, no doubt, if the name wasn't enough his boldness and form of greeting were hallmarks of his culture.

Kasumi didn't take his hand, bowed deeply, and introduced herself. Mr. Itori apparently realized his faux pas, withdrew his hand, and returned the bow.

"Did you make the tea?" He asked.

"Ummm, yes." Kasumi looked around for Nabiki or Akane.

"It's excellent." He took a sniff from the paper cup in his hand. "Ginger and orange peel accents correct?"

Kasumi blinked and turned to the young man. "Yes." She was mildly surprised. True her blends were no great secret, but having lived with the Saotomes she was unused to seeing a person who actually savored their food, rather than just bolting it down as fast as possible.

"It's a good blend, maybe a little too bitter." Itori continued, he blushed again and looked away. "I apologize."

"No, no." It was Kasumi's turn to blush. "It is a little overly bitter. I was actually trying for a counterpoint to the cookies."

"Oh," Itori nodded. "That's tricky." He took another sip.

"Yes it is." She smiled. "Do you make tea?"

"No, well…a little." Itori returned the gentle smile. "I'm a botanist. I just opened a little nursery here. I make tea as a hobby."

"Oh so you work with plants?"

"Yes," He handed Kasumi a business card accompanied with a traditional bow. Kasumi happily and dutifully accepted. "Please don't hesitate to come by my business some day. I think your friends are waiting for you though." He pointed towards the door at the other end of the auditorium.

Akane waved across the room for her sister when she saw her looking at them. Nabiki was right behind her staring coldly at nothing in particular, both girls wanted to leave as soon as they could. The counselor had actually managed to get through to Nabiki and Akane, and both girls had responded in their usual ways to feelings of vulnerability. Akane became hostile, not to the level of physical force that certain-unnamed-ponytail-wearing-sex changing-would be fiancée-jerks did, but enough that she just got up and left, not wanting to deal with it. Nabiki just turned on the ice, bouncing each question back at the counselor making sure that there wasn't any more headway in the conversation. Both of them had had more than enough and were more than ready to go.

"Are you related?" Itori asked.

"Yes." Kasumi said. She was a little upset with them, making a scene like they were.

"I can see the resemblance." Itori gave her another kind smile. "Sometimes people become scared of their feelings. They think it makes them look weak. So they go into the role people prefer to see because that makes them feel accepted. Be it aggressive, or cold or…" He looked at Kasumi. Then he looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry. That was a little much."

"No, no." Kasumi said. She looked at the group of people quietly talking, then at her two sisters standing near the door. Akane staring and waving at her, and Nabiki coolly looking away from everyone, then she looked back at Mr. Itori and his kind grey eyes.

"I…I have to go."

"I hope you come back. This really does help the soul."

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Mr. Itori's nursery had that smell of earth and dirt that seemed to be in every one of these places. It was full of small plants and flowers in neat orderly rows all clearly labeled with signs in clear writing. In once corner of the room was a greenhouse made out of clear plastic sheeting. Kasumi thought it was rather quaint.

"Miss Tendou, how nice to see you." Mr. Itori came out from the greenhouse area of the store. He gave her a bow, and then gestured at the bags of groceries she was carrying. "Can I take those for you so you can look around?"

"Thank you." Kasumi said. "Can you show me your selection of herbs?"

"Of course," Itori carefully set the bags down on a table. "Please tell me what you are looking for."

A few moments later Kasumi paid Itori for a few small planters. A few flowers and herbs, nothing special, Itori placed the planters in a small box, and looked up at her. "Thank you for your purchase. I was wondering, do you have time for a cup of tea?"

Kasumi smiled and nodded. "Of course, but just one, then I have to get back home." She smiled at him. "Also, how can you make any money with prices like these?" The plants had cost only a third of what Kasumi had expected.

"I'm not concerned with money. I get more happiness by helping people, but please, we can talk over tea." Itori took the young woman into his small apartment in the nursery building, and brought out a small pot of tea and a few cups. Kasumi and Itori made small talk, then something a little odd caught her eye. "What's that?" Kasumi pointed to a strange red symbol painted on a piece of felt hanging from the wall. A circle in a circle and inside it there were three circles in a triangle formation. Strange runes and symbols covered the entire thing.

"That's the symbol of my faith."

"I've never seen anything like that before."

Itori nodded. "That's not surprising. My faith is primarily from the West, it's not well known all the way over here."

"Oh." Kasumi nodded and returned to her tea. Any further questions would have been improper. She finished her cup and rose. "Thank you very much Mr. Itori."

"Come by anytime you'd like Miss Tendou." He rose and returned her bow. "I very much enjoy your company."

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Over the next few weeks found Kasumi visiting Father Itori, as she had taken to calling him out of respect, about once a week. They would talk, swap recipes, play some cards, and other similar activities. No one minded, Itori was a pleasant enough fellow, and everyone thought it was nice that Kasumi had found someone outside of her home to talk to. The typical craziness of Nerima quickly drowned out the harmless actions of the quiet man from America who grew plants to sell to housewives.

"You seem a little sad today Miss Tendou, is something wrong?"

Kasumi sighed and nodded, Itori was very perceptive. "Today's my mother's birthday."

"Oh, well." Itori smiled. "Do you need to get her a gift?" He paused noticing the look on her face. "Oh…I'm so sorry."

"No, no." Kasumi sighed. "It was a long time ago."

"She must have been someone special. Would…" Itori paused, and rose to get a small vial of a milky substance from a cabinet. "Would you like to see her again? Your mother?"

"Excuse me?"

"I have something that could help you." He set the little vial down upon the table. "This is something that can help open your eyes."

"Is it some kind of a drug?" Kasumi gasped.

"Oh no no no. This is a herbal extract." Itori said. He gestured to the white flowers in the vase on the table. "It's the crushed oils from these flowers. It's harmless and perfectly safe. It's a major ingredient in some sleep aids in America. The official name of it is White Claudia. But I prefer to call it Grace,"

"Is it dangerous? " Kasumi stared at the little tube.

"Of course not," He held up the vial of white liquid. "This is just something that can help enhance memories. Let's you truly relive them." Itori placed the small vial in her hand. "Keep it, just in case you change your mind."

Later that evening, after dinner, and the after dinner fight, Kasumi sat on her bed staring at the little vial in her hand. The sounds of Ranma and Akane still arguing drifted through the walls, Father and Genma were out drinking, and Nabiki had gone out on one of her 'dates.' She was all alone, in a large empty house. She took a deep breath, and in one fluid motion, she poured it down her throat. She fell back onto her bed, and slowly a wide smile crept onto her face, a small speck of crimson appearing at each corner.

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A few weeks later Nabiki knocked on her elder sister's door. "Kasumi? Mr. Saotome wants to know what's for dinner."

No answer.

Nabiki knocked again. "Kasumi?"

No answer.

She knocked again, harder this time. "Sis? You okay in there?"

The door opened a crack into a darkened room. Kasumi's voice came through the crack."I'm sorry Nabiki," A slight cough. "I'm not feeling too well, just a cold."

Nabiki frowned. "Sorry. Anything I can do? Get some medicine?"

"No." A pause. "I just need a night to rest. I already told Akane she could handle dinner."

Nabiki visibly paled. "Oh…you did…well…" Her mind was already going through escape routes and deciding which restaurant to go to tonight. "IhopeyoufeelbetterKasumiseeyoutomorrowgetplentyofrestgoodnight!" She rattled off quickly, sprinting for the door to escape before the others noticed her gone, or the smells that were emerging from the kitchen.

Kasumi just closed her door and sat back on the bed. She took out the rubber strap and the needle. It was getting harder to find a vein in her right arm, she for a moment wished she could go back to where she could visit Mother just by drinking it. But such was life, and if Mother told Kasumi that this was the only way they could see each other, then so be it. Her mind drifted back to the last time she had visited Father Itori's.

"So you see," He said to Kasumi closing his book. "God hasn't deserted us, she just is regaining her strength." He took the money Kasumi had placed on the table and dropped a small plastic bag of white powder on the table. "And when she does return, and brings us into paradise there will be no death, no pain, no suffering, everyone will love each other. We will all live in bliss," He paused and smiled at Kasumi's rapt gaze. "And your Mother will return to you, and be with you forever."

"Praise God." Kasumi whispered staring up at the ceiling.

And a Voice answered in her mind, "Amen."

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The next day Kasumi went out to do her normal shopping. It was a rather nice day, a little quiet with Ranma and his friends gone to meet some people called the Musk, but she liked quiet. When she finally arrived home she found Nabiki on the phone.

"Yes, that's the spot. You need anything else or was what I gave you enough. Alright, great. Thanks Saito, and don't worry about that money you owe me, I'll give you another extension, with only 2 interest. Alright. Thanks. Bye." Nabiki hung up the phone and noticed Kasumi. "Hey sis, welcome home." Nabiki said humming to herself as she grabbed an apple from the kitchen. "How was your day?"

"Very nice," She looked up and smiled. "You seem to be in a good mood."

"I just did something nice for the community." She chuckled.

"Oh really?" Kasumi smiled at her sister as she put the groceries away. "What did you do?"

"Well, you know my friend Yumi?" Nabiki said casually biting into her piece of fruit. Kasumi nodded, she vaguely remembered her, she had blue hair in pigtails, and she wasn't so much a friend of Nabiki's as an employee. "She got hooked on some new drug, she overdosed two days ago." She frowned and sighed. "I told her she needed to reel in that impulsive streak."

"Oh my! Is she alright?" Kasumi asked.

"Yeah, thank God." Nabiki said sitting down on the table across from her sister. "She's in the hospital, it looks like she'll pull through."

"So how is one of your friends troubles good for the community?"

"Well, nobody messes with any of my girls, so I called up Saito. He graduated last year and became a policeman, you remember him?" Again Kasumi mechanically nodded. "Well he owes me a bunch of favors, so I had him tell me what he knew about the drug and the bastard behind it."

A light bulb went off in Kasumi's head, accompanied with a blast of raw fear. She managed to keep her voice level. "What's the name of this drug?"

"It's a kind of opiate from America, it's called 'Grace,' apparently there's a bunch of housewives all over the ward hooked on it." She sighed and sipped her tea. "Hard to believe huh?"

"Yes." Kasumi nodded, her mind elsewhere at the moment. "That is surprising. What did you do?"

"Well, I called around and found out about this guy, Gregory Itori. He runs this little plant shop."

"Nursery."

"Sorry, nursery." Nabiki waved off her sister's correction. "He's from America, and he grows all these strange flowers, the new drug is from America and it's an opiate derived from flowers." Nabiki smiled. "Even Ranma could figure this one out." She took another drink from her cup. "Have you heard anything from them by the way? The Musk hasn't killed them yet I hope."

"No, they are doing quite well." She said mechanically, internally she was terrified. Did Nabiki know? What did she do to poor Father Itori? Was he in trouble? "What did you do?"

"I went down to that bastard's shop, to explain to him a few certain details."

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"Hello," Itori came up to the front counter. "How can I help you?"

"Are you Brother Itori?" Nabiki asked calmly. She needed a moment to size up this piece of trash. Decide how to deal with him properly.

"Well that depends." He said it with that indulgent smile that meant Nabiki would have to go into a higher gear. The bastard was clever and knew how to be charming, bad combination.

"My name is Hitomi Nakamura. I'm here to pick up something from my mother?" She said with a smile that screamed innocence and, more importantly, ignorance. "She said it was important?"

"Miss Nakamura…" Itori bit his lip trying to see if he recalled doing business with anyone with that name. "Would you happen to know what she ordered?"

"She said it was important?" Nabiki said. She had practiced that way of talking that made every word out of her mouth a question. Making her seem like just a bubble headed girl who didn't know anything. It had been ages since she had used this trick, everyone in Nerima knowing her by sight these days. It was rather exciting. "Something about flowers and grates?"

Realization clicked to his face and the warm smile grew on it once more. "Ah, of course. Did she give you the money?"

Nabiki felt a tiny spark of respect for the business savvy of the man. It was quickly crushed by the hate she felt for the person who had placed one of her girls in the hospital. She nodded in that way that made people wonder if they could hear a rattling sound in what they thought was an empty head. "Yes sir, is this it?" She placed a large wad of money on the counter.

"Wait here Miss." Itori left and returned with a small paper bag. "Here you are, and do tell your mother that I appreciate her business."

"This doesn't look like flowers or grates?" She said looking in the bag.

Itori couldn't help but chuckle. "I think what your mother said was Grace. This is something made from flowers."

"Why does she want it, it's not pretty, it's just some white powder?"

"Well, I guess your mother takes it to feel happy."

"It can do that? You sell this Grace stuff?"

"Yes I do, would you be interested?"

Nabiki reached into her pocket and clicked off the tape recorder. Nabiki had him. He probably was good at fooling housewives and police, but he was strictly in the minor leagues. He didn't have a chance against a serious player like herself.

"Mr. Itori." Nabiki said, her guise of Hitomi sliding away to reveal a shark-like smile so vindictive and wide she almost hurt herself. "I am very interested. You and I have to have a discussion."

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"So you're going to blackmail him?" Kasumi tittered. "Nabiki…"

"Oh no, no." Nabiki smiled. "I just blackmailed him that one time." She chuckled to himself. "That bastard just crumbled under pressure. Begging me to leave him alone, that he was sorry, offering me that crap that almost killed Yumi."

"So what did you do?" Kasumi was gripping the handle to the cabinet door so hard her nails were digging into the wood.

"Well I took all the money he had on him and told him he had two days to leave town." She chuckled. "And when I got home I called the police on him. You just came in when I finished up."

"You did what?!" Kasumi's voice almost rose to a shriek but she managed to keep it under control."

"Yep!" Nabiki looked very proud of herself. "Made a bundle and got rid of a drug dealer all in one day. I think I deserve a medal." She winked at her sister, grabbed a package of rice crackers, and made her way back to her room.  
Kasumi didn't scream, hurl something, or any of the normal reactions one usually has when consumed by white-hot rage. In fact a cool calm had just washed over her. She put away the groceries silently and then began to water the window box garden she had been growing. The small white buds had already started to grow; she supposed that later on she would have to transplant them. She was fairly certain that they'd thrive. The sacred flowers seemed to grow like wildfire, and their pollen smelled so sweet. It would take a while for enough of them to grow and mature, but that was alright. Good things came to those who wait.

And Kasumi was excellent at waiting.

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"My dear, sweet, little sister…what an apt thing to say."

Nabiki's mind snapped back into first gear. A red-hot boiling rage surged through her body.

Kasumi gently set the pistol down on the altar next to Ranma's prone form. "I'm sure you have a lot of que-" She was cut off by Nabiki's hand slapping her face hard, twice, the second time she scraped Kasumi's cheek with her nails leaving little rows of red marks.

There was a moment of silence as Kasumi rubbed her cheek sighing. Then she smiled and said in a perfectly calm voice. "I understand how you must feel, so I'll forgive you for that. But please, let's behave properly here, this is a holy place."

Nabiki just gaped. The constant throb of her many aches and pains feeding into her rage. Still she had to keep it together, keep calm, figure out what she had to do, and then she could give into that rage. Better to give that fury precision, make it useful. Her mind returning to operational speed she found that she was pointing the shotgun in her sister's face. Kasumi calmly raised her hands and slowly walked down the aisle, Nabiki followed keeping the gun pointed squarely at her head. They stopped in the middle of the room.

"Make it stop!" She pumped the shotgun as a threat.

"I can't, and I won't." She said, enraging Nabiki further by still remaining calm. "If it stopped then everything would stay like this, and I doubt anyone here wants that." She said gesturing to the assembled corpses. "You really should be more considerate to the feelings of others."

"Why?" She managed to ask. She was surprised at how calm her voice came out. "Why are you doing this?"

"I'm fixing everything." Kasumi smiled. "I'm going to make everything better. God is letting me put everything right."

_She's lost it. My sister is absolutely insane, even more than Hikaru or myself. How long has she BEEN this way?!_

"H-how are you going to fix everything?"

"Well, no more curses." She counted things off with her fingers. "No Happosai, Kunos or Colonge. Mousse and Shampoo will be older and engaged. Ukyo will be a man and her two friends will be girls. I'll fix Miss Hinako. The Saotomes will be together, Ranma and Akane will be married. Best of all," Kasumi sighed. "Mother will come back!"

"And you can do all this?" Nabiki was doing the time old tactic of keeping people talking while she thought up of a plan. The only problem was that she couldn't think of anything, and everything Kasumi said made her even more disturbed.

"Oh no." Kasumi shook her head and sighed as if Nabiki was a slow child. "God will be doing this. As thanks for taking the world closer to paradise."

This was all wrong. Nabiki's head pounded and her ears rang. This wasn't how it was supposed to finish. She shouldn't listen to her. She should just keep her talking and figure something out. But…her sister's voice would not be ignored, and even though she didn't want to know she kept asking questions.

"Why me?"

Kasumi frowned. "You should know why sister." She gestured to the crowd. "You were going to stab all of us in the back!"

"Is this for turning in Itori?"

Kasumi shook her head. "You were going to leave us!" She said. "I saw all those letters you wrote! You were going to back up your bags and leave us to go away!"

"What letters?" Nabiki asked honestly puzzled.

"The letters to America, Europe, begging them to take you away from us!"

A bell finally rang in Nabiki's skull. "You mean those letters I wrote to colleges? THAT'S how I betrayed you?" The last puzzle piece finally fit together. "Kasumi, you heard Ranma and Akane's plans after the wedding didn't you?"

"N-no I didn't." She said.

"You heard that they were going to go away on a martial arts tour. A whole year away."

"No they weren't."

"I would go to college. Father was going to go with the Saotomes on a trip. The others would have either followed Ranma and Akane or go back home wouldn't they?"

"They weren't going to!"

"And poor Kasumi was going to be left all alone."

"NO I WAS NOT!" She shrieked into Nabiki's face. Her visage a portrait of twisted, insane, fury. Nabiki wanted to feel triumph at that, but she really wanted to cry. Remembering Tofu's desperate attempt to try and warn her, Nabiki almost sobbed in frustration. Were she and her sister so far gone mentally, so damaged and so good at hiding it that it took a place like this for them to face their demons? She controlled herself and noticed that her sister had also regained her composure, so she kept on with the questions.

"So you set everything up at the wedding?" Nabiki said. "You filled the entire place with White Claudia flowers?"

Kasumi nodded. "I also used it for the incense. A few changes to Tofu's oration, and a few hanging decorations with the appropriate symbols, and everyone in the chapel was sanctified." She sighed. "I honestly didn't know that was going to happen. I suppose though that there was bound to be a little collateral damage when sin is brought to the surface."

"Why wasn't I 'sanctified?'"

"Don't you remember?" Kasumi said smiling. "When it started, how I grabbed your shoulder in support?"

Nabiki did recall that happening. She also remembered Kasumi holding her a special way, her fingers poking her in a rather uncomfortable way, then blackness. Nabiki blinked. "Pressure points?"

"So clever."

"What about Akane?!"

"She did that to herself when she woke up, I tried to stop her." Kasumi sadly shook her head and then shrugged. "Once this is finished she'll come back and everything will be fine."

"What about Hikaru?" Nabiki snarled. "What did he have to do with any of this?"

"Nothing, just a bit of good fortune for yourself. He came banging on the door after you left, begging me to get out of town and asking if you had already left." She chuckles. "I was wondering how he was unaffected by Grace."

"Yeah, why wasn't he?"

"Oh, he had some magical talisman and had enough belief in it. Magic is very complicated. Doesn't matter anymore. I was honestly surprised to find that he had actually came here." Kasumi smiled and shrugged. "Serendipity, I suppose, I doubt you'd be able to withhold anymore corruption anyway. What with your own self-doubt already taking over that puppet."

"Mercy was a puppet?"

"It's as good a title as any."

"What about Hikaru's parents, what happened to them?"

"I honestly don't know." Kasumi shrugged. "As I said once this is finished it won't matter."

Nabiki swallowed and tried to control her tears, shaking, and breathing as she asked her last question.

"What's going to happen to me?"

Kasumi answered by giving her a look colder than any that Nabiki had given in her life "After how you betrayed us…I honestly don't care."  
Nabiki jammed the barrel of the shotgun up against Kasumi's head. Her finger hovered above the trigger.

"Nabiki…" Kasumi said. "Please, this is for the best. This will fix everything. Just stop thinking about yourself and your selfishness for once and think of all of us. Mother would have wanted this way."

There was a pause, and then slowly Nabiki lowered the shotgun from her head to her chest. She sobbed. She tried to say something but it came out garbled. It was just too much, all the pain, both physical and psychological, had finally taken its toll. Nabiki Tendou had been broken.

Kasumi just sighed sadly and then gave Nabiki a smile gently touching her cheek. "It's alright Nabiki, everything's going to be okay. It'll all be over in a moment." She nodded with her head in the direction behind Nabiki. Nabiki turned and, if she wasn't so completely drained of adrenaline, she would have gasped.

Ranma, eyes bloodshot and full of tears was standing. He was clearly still high from the drug. The gun Kasumi had placed next to him shaking in his hand. He had it pointed straight at Nabiki.

"Y-y-you killed them…" He managed to stammer.

Nabiki couldn't help it. She smirked and made a small sigh before looking back at Kasumi.

"Clever."

BANG!

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Author Notes: Well, the next chapter is going to be an end of Grace and Silver. I'd like to thank WFROSE for all his terrific editing, and all of you who put up with my extremely lengthy update times.


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